Learning To Be Away From You
by Cimmy
Summary: [IN PROGRESS] Some of the Ducks have managed to get tickets to the Southern Rock Festival in South Carolina. They spend a week camping in the mud and fighting over the food, with unexpected love affairs, drama and music. [Co written with trulyforgotten9]
1. Changes For The Best

**Chapter 1: Changes For The Best**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Summary:** A few of the Ducks have managed to get tickets to the Southern Rock Festival in South Carolina. They spend a week camping in the mud and fighting over the food, with unexpected love affairs, drama and music.  
**Rating:** PG-13, might change depending on the contents  
**Disclaimer:** The Ducks are owned by Disney, as usual. iluvguygermaine00 owns Samantha, and Cimmy owns Fred and Catalina. A bit of the story is inspired by the movie _Festival_, owned by _Buena Vista International_ (I guess). _The Southern Rock Festival_ doesn't exist for real, we made it up.  
**Author's Note:** This story is packed with drama and angst, and almost everyone in this story gets into trouble and does very questionable things. We have both written every chapter together, doing different parts, and hopefully you'll like it!

* * *

**Connie's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

"You're too young to go!" my Mom tells me for the hundredth time today. "I don't care if the rest of your friends are allowed to go on this trip; I'm not giving you my permission!"

I'm actually not too young. I'm seventeen years old, and I know my way around the block just as well as the next person. What my Mom has a problem with this time is the fact that I'm going away to the Southern Rock Festival in South Carolina this week. All my friends are going, and I just _have_ to go, even if I'm not allowed.

"I'm going!" I shout back, grabbing my bag and head towards the door. Charlie is picking me up in a few minutes, and I don't want to be late.

It was actually Adam who managed to get us tickets to the festival, and I've been looking forward to it all winter. I like music, and rock especially, so I need to go! Even though he got the whole team tickets, not everyone could tag along. I guess more people have over-bearing parents.

So in the end it's going to be Charlie, Adam, Portman, Fred, Luis, Julie, Catalina, Ken, Guy, Fulton, Samantha and myself. I'm sort of bummed out that not everyone could come along, but hey, that's life.

Too bad I have to share space with Guy, because I'm still annoyed with him. Of course, we broke up several months ago, but I'm still not pleased with the fact that I have to be around him for a whole week.

"Don't you open that door, young lady!" my Mom warns me. I've never spoken against her before, but I'm really not going to stay here all Spring Break. Especially not if Guy's going to be left all alone for a whole week, surrounded by lots of needy girls.

"Connie?"

I turn around and see Guy standing in the door. He's having that impatient look on his face, probably wondering why the hell I'm taking so long. When he sees my Mom, he puts on that annoying grin and goes over to say hello.

"Hi, Guy," my Mom says, not sounding mad at all anymore. "Are you here to say goodbye to Connie?"

"Goodbye? I thought she was coming with us," Guy replies and looks at me. "We're sort of late for our flight, so if you could hurry up and..."

"Connie's not going."

"Yes I am," I shout and hurry over to the door. "Let's go, Guy."

My Mom grabs my arm just when I'm about to escape down the stairs. "You're not going anywhere, Connie," she growls at me. "I am sorry, Guy, but you just have to go by yourself."

"He's not with me!" I explode and pull free from her grip. "Leave me alone!"

"You're not going to this thing on your own, Connie! You're far too young!" she continues and tries to grab me again. "What's gotten into you? Why can't you understand how ridiculous it is to let you go across the country on your own, with a bunch of boys..."

"It's the team!" I bark back and point at a bag next to Guy. "Could you grab that for me, please?"

"Wait," Guy begins, but my Mom cuts him off.

"No, Guy, you're not taking that bag, and I hope you realize why my daughter isn't allowed to go on this thing."

Guy nods at me. "That's okay, Connie, we'll call you."

I consider that as a very mean thing to say to me right now. I throw my bag into his stomach and he almost topples over. "Let's go," I mutter and go down the stairs. "They're waiting."

"Connie, come back!"

Like hell I will. This is my Spring Break. I'm single, I'm seventeen, and I'm going! Why can't she understand me? How can she consider me as too young when I'm not? I know what I'm doing, it's not like I'll go and have sex with every guy I meet along the way, while doing drugs. I would never do that!

"Are you sure you should just leave like that?" Guy asks me when we're walking toward the car. "Won't you get into trouble?"

"This coming from the guy who was so afraid of meeting my mother that he had to hide under the bed every time he stayed over?" I snort and throw my bags into Adam's car. I guess Charlie's delayed or something.

"No, I'm just worried that your Mom might flip and call the police. And then we'll get into trouble because you're traveling with us!"

I roll my eyes and sit down in the passenger's seat, while Guy has to sit in the back. "You know, I broke up with you to avoid these kinds of conversations," I point out. Adam seems amused by our bickering, but he doesn't say anything.

"No, I was the one breaking up with _you_," Guy reminds me. Damn, he's right. "And don't worry; I won't talk to you at all anymore."

"Great!"

"Good!"

I look out the window while we're driving to the airport. I'm not going to let Guy destroy this week. I'm going to have fun, listen to music and hopefully find some guy that's not completely mental.

While we're parking the car, I decide to turn off my cell-phone. Mostly because my Mom just called me for the sixth time. I really hope she doesn't actually call the police. That would be embarrassing.

Charlie is already there, handing out tickets. He must've picked up the rest of the people along the way, because we're all gathered. I say hello to Julie, I haven't seen her since last Thursday, because she took a few days off to go home to Maine. The rest of them I've seen everyday, so I save my hellos to someone else. Preferably some cute boy.

I'm sort of nervous about flying, but I refuse to let anyone see that. I'm going to be the tough and cool Connie during this trip. Not the wimpy and sweet Connie. I look at my ticket. Greenville, South Carolina. Who knew they had this sort of event?

"This is sick," Adam tell me. "Look, they have only two different kinds of meals to choose between!"

"I'm sorry you're not in your usually seat in First Class," I say. "But I'm sure you'll find this experience much more intriguing."

"Whoa, bitchy, huh?" Portman snickers from the seat behind me. "Did your Mom forget to pack your stuffed bunny?"

"Please don't mention my Mom," I groan. "I just forgot about her!"

"Yeah, Connie eloped," Guy announces. "She's not even allowed to be here."

Charlie gives me a terrified look. "What? You can't do that! You'll get us all into trouble!" he shouts.

I put on my head-phones and look out through the window, while Charlie's giving me a long speech about respecting your parents. Yeah, I've heard all that before. I've been a good-girl all my life. It's time to take some risks.

* * *

So, we get to the festival-area, where we're supposed to put up our tents and live for a whole week. It's already muddy, crowded with people and unsanitary. When I first look at it, I can't believe I'm actually going to voluntarily live at this place for a whole stinkin' week. But that feeling settles quickly. 

Once I start to look around and accept the condition of this place, I begin to like it here. Even Adam seems to be fine, and that boy was born with a golden spoon in his mouth.

"No TV?" Fulton jokes and goes through Charlie's bag. "You packed hundredths of CD's, but no TV?"

"How hideous," Julie snorts. "Now we have to go back home and get one."

"Let's find a place to put our tents first," Guy suggests. I just _have_ to object to this, of course.

"Nah, I'm hungry. Anyone wants to get something to eat?" I ask and look around.

Guy gives me a tired gaze. "You just have to disagree whenever I say something, don't you?" he snaps.

"Cut it out, you guys," Samantha suggests. "We didn't come here to fight."

As long as Guy keeps out of my face, I'll be fine. I follow Charlie over the campsite. Oh, the mud is ruining my shoes. Well, I did buy them two years ago, but still...

"We can put them up here," Julie calls from the other side of the area. I have to climb over several people just to get there. Julie, Portman and Ken found a spot with grass and without mud, so we quickly throw our stuff there. I put down my bag and look for my things.

"Hey, Guy!" I yell in his direction. "You took the wrong bag!"

"What did I do now?" he sighs and sounds tortured. Hey, I've just begun!

"This isn't my bag; this is my brother's gym-bag!" I shout and stand up. "Now I don't have a sleeping-bag!"

Guy just shakes his head. "You know that you're not supposed to put the sleeping-bag in a bag, right? Hence the name," he says. "The sleeping-bag is already a bag, so..."

"I don't care!" I howl. "How am I supposed to sleep now?"

"That's karma for you," Charlie explains. "You shouldn't have runaway from home. Bad things happen to bad people."

"Oh, shut up," I mutter. "Where can I sleep?"

"Didn't you bring a tent?" Adam asks.

Uhm, no. I guess I forgot about that part while screaming at my mother. This is all her fault, by the way. Her and Guy's fault. Damn boy to take the wrong bag! And my brother is also responsible, of course.

Portman laughs when he sees my confused expression. "You're a bit ditsy today, Moreau. Hey, who wants to share tent with her?"

This time no one even looks up to offer. "I'm sort of sharing with Fred," Catalina excuses herself.

"Yeah, and I'm sharing with Fulton," Portman goes on.

"Uh, I'm with Adam," Charlie points.

"And I'm supposed to share with Ken," Luis explains and gives me an apologizing look.

"I already promised to share tent with Julie," Samantha says. "But, I guess you could share with Guy."

Oh, no.

"Does anyone want to trade?" I ask hopefully. "I'll pay you good money."

No one offers, and I moan. "Well, I guess your tent has to do," I mutter and grab one of the tent pegs. "As long as you sleep outside and I get the sleeping-bag."

"In your dreams," Guy snorts and yanks the peg out of my hand again.

More like nightmares, Guy, more like nightmares.

* * *

**Guy's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

I can't believe I have to share my tent with Connie. She's trying to convince me to let her use my sleeping bag, while I put up the tent.

"C'mon Guy. Just let me use it." Connie complains and gives me a puppy dog face.

"Connie, that face barely even worked when we were going out, what make you think it's going to work now?" I inform her. "You can't get everything you want. Can you go bother someone else? 'Cause if you don't we're not going to have something over our heads tonight."

"I'm trying to help!" She whines.

God, I hate it when she whines. "No, you're not, now just go."

"Only if you give me your sleeping bag." She smiles.

She's really getting on my nerves. I rub my temples. "Fine." I can't believe I'm doing this.

Connie starts to jump up-and-down. What have I done?…I've made her hyper, that's what I've done. Anyone got a tranquilizer? Then she hops away. "Fine, don't say thanks." I groan.

* * *

**Later that night…**

Everybody is about to go to sleep, it was about midnight. Even Connie and I. Can you believe she had the nerve to ask me for my pillow?! Well, anyway, she didn't get one.

"Connie?" I whisper.

She doesn't answer.

"Connie, could you please move over a bit?"

Still no answer.

"Connie! I know you're not sleeping!" I yell.

"Fine!" she hisses back. "Why do you have to take up so much room anyway?" she shouts back.

"Could you two shove it?!" Charlie yells from his tent.

"No!" we both yell.

"It isn't my fault you take up half of the tent!" I continue.

"That's not true!" she yells back.

"Yes it is! Now, if you don't move over I'm taking away my sleeping bag!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Wanna bet?"

"Shut up!" Portman and Fulton both yell.

"Hold on a minute! I want to settle this!" Connie screams.

"What's there to settle? You're hogging the tent! You stole my sleeping bag!"

"I didn't steal your sleeping bag you let me have it!"

"So, just 'cause you were being so damn annoying!"

Connie opens her mouth to say something, but someone unzips our tent.

It's Samantha.

"What?" Connie and I say with an attitude.

"First of all, I really don't need your attitude at this early!"

We both glare.

"I don't need those stares either."

"Sorry." I mumble.

"It's okay." She smiles. "Connie you can share with Julie and have my sleeping bag. Guy I'll sleep here with you and you can have your sleeping bag. Now, you two are going to do this, because I'm tired and I really don't want to hear you two fight all night, not to mention if you kept it up about five more minutes you'll probably get us kicked out. And please, hurry up with moving, because I'm getting eaten by bugs."

"Thanks Samantha." Connie smiles and climbs out of the tent and Samantha climbs in.

"No problem, Con." She smiles.

"What about you?" I ask as I take my sleeping bag.

"What do you mean?" she says as she lies down and puts her head on her pillow.

"What are you going to sleep on and over you?"

"I'll be fine." she reassures.

"Are you sure what you're wearing is warm enough?" I say looking at what's she's wearing. Pajama pants and a hoodie, probably with a tank-top or something under it.

"Guy, just go to sleep." She says and closes her eyes.

"Okay." I mumble and do the same.

* * *

**  
Samantha's POV**

I went to break-up Guy and Connie's fight. Not just for me, but for the Ducks and the rest of the campers. Not really wanting to, I slept in Guy's tent without anything to sleep on or over me. But I have my pillow; I guess that's good enough. Anything to get those two to stop fighting. They both better be happy in the morning. I tell Guy to go to sleep after he tries to be all nice, asking me if I'm going to be alright. Jeez, everybody knows him and Connie are meant to be, why be mean to her and not to me. I really don't care right now, I'm tired and going to sleep, Guy better do the same.

* * *

**Guy's POV**

I wake up in the middle of the night. I just had a really weird dream. Mine and Connie's wedding. Actually I wake up smiling. I guess what people say is true, me and Connie are meant to be. So, I decide to win her back, on this trip. I'll pretty much do anything, if I'm dreaming about her; I must really miss her…and love her.

Then I look over at Samantha. She's lying in the same prostitution she was when she fell asleep. She looks peaceful and happy…for someone who's sleeping. Maybe she's have a good dream, like I just had. …Wait a second; that gives me an idea. I could get Connie jealous by hanging with Samantha; maybe I'll even ask her out if I get desperate.

My thoughts are broken when Samantha twitches. I just yawn and go back to sleep.


	2. Lots of Considerations

**Chapter 2: Lots of Considerations**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** Why, thank you Chelsea for calling us cool! Or actually, we're the coolest, according to you, but why mark words? There are going to be a few strange twists in this story, and some weird couplings... Actually, very weird. Yeah, Catalina and Fred are Cimmy's creations, the arguing couple that deep down loves each other. Well, in other stories at least. As we said, there are some twisted things going on in this universe...  
And percussion, there are probably just platonic things going on between Charlie and Adam... Which will be obvious later on.

* * *

**Portman's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

Even though Connie and Guy argued through most-part of the night, I actually got some sleep anyway. I guess they both calmed down after Samantha offered to change tents with Connie.

The sun struck our tent early in the morning, making it way too hot to exist in there. I decide to crawl out and see if there were any activities going on besides from arguing. Charlie is already up. I'm not surprised, he's always the first one to wake up, and then terrorizes the rest of us until we get up too.

"Where's breakfast?" I demand to know at once. "Please tell me you brought cereals!"

"The only eatable I brought was pop tarts," Charlie shrugs. "You have to go over to the food stands or the restaurant outside the campsite."

That's not good. I'm hungry now! And I don't think I have any money on me. Luckily, my day is saved, because Fred just came climbing out from his tent. He can probably pay up, so I can get my daily supply of chocolate-cereals. Either it's him or Adam I should stalk.

"Hey!" I call out. "Fred!"

Fred turns to face me, and Catalina also comes tumbling out from the tent and crashes against his legs. I laugh harshly. I don't know why, I have a weird sense of humor when it's early in the morning.

When Fred's helped Catalina back on her feet again, he comes over to me. "What's up?"

"There aren't any cereals!" I exclaim and point at Charlie's half-eaten pop tart. Look!"

"Gosh," Fred mumbles uninterestedly. I really haven't heard anyone say 'gosh' in a long time. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Get me some food," I plead and try to pull off some sort of begging-routine. Sadly, that only works on the girls. Fred just rolls his eyes.

While I try to convince that rich bastard to buy me breakfast, Charlie and Catalina fight over the remaining parts of the poor pop tart. Suddenly Connie comes bursting out from the tent she's been sharing with Julie.

"Ah! My neck hurts!" she yells and does some kind of dance in front of us. "Goddamn... I need a pillow for tonight!"

Fred and I laugh at her. "You want some massage?" I offer with a grin. She hits me over the head with a bottle of water. "Okay, then, consider the offer as with-drawn."

Connie goes over to pout at Fred, and this time he gives in. He's a sucker for that adorable, pouty look. Connie tries to convince him into rubbing her neck, and he's stupid enough to do it. I begin to get impatient. What about my cereals?

Samantha and Guy show up and they all begin talking about who's the worst tent-buddy. While their conversation turns into the usual complaints, I try to get Fred's attention again.

"Fred..." I whine. "Please, breakfast!"

Fred sighs and takes his hands off Connie. Then he leans over Catalina and kisses her. Yuck, I don't need this right now! That guy needs to seriously get a grip and be with a few more girls than just his crazy girlfriend. But that's just my opinion. Monogamy really isn't my thing.

"I need to talk to you," I explain to him.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" he mutters and walks up next to me. "What the hell do you want now?"

"Oh, I'm sorry; did I drag you away from your harem?" I say mockingly. I don't think I've ever met a more shy and confused guy, at least when it comes to girls. Just the thought of him having his own harem makes me choke.

"Don't you ever get tired of being with the same girl all the time?" I ask, while we're walking away from the tents. Fred snorts loudly, but never answers. "You have an annoying way of exhaling."

"I was just thinking," Fred mumbles. "Why did I agree to go with you to get food? You irritate me."

"I just think that you should play the field a bit more. You're almost in college. You have all the time in the world to be with Catalina _after_ you've checked what else is out there." I point towards nothing special, but Fred looks anyway. When he realizes that I'm just trying to be graphical, he shakes his head.

"I suppose I'm just not that sort of guy that can date a lot of girls," he says. "I love Catalina, and I'd never give her up just to..."

"Have one second of mind-blowing sex with someone you hardly know?" I interrupt, and he blushes. He amuses me to no end. "Don't you wanna know the thrill of just doing wrong? Without letting your conscious get in the way, of course. Otherwise, what's the point?"

Fred doesn't answer, but I know that he's trying to grasp what I just said. Not that I don't want him to be with Catalina, she's a nice girl and all, I'm just curious what goes around in his head from time to time. Although, if he actually goes off and messes with some girl, I have to kick his ass. Catalina _is_ after all my friend.

* * *

**Samantha's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

I wake up to people talking. I think it's Fred, Portman, Charlie, and Catalina. But who can be sure. I sit up and crack my neck; it was a pretty loud crack to. I re-do my hair quickly, then Guy sits up, scaring the hell out of me. I jump and give a little squeak.

"Sorry." He mumbles.

"It's alright." I yawn.

He scratches his head and starts to get out of the tent. I go to get out after him and he gives me a hand…it's sort of sweet I guess, but I just shake it off. He's probably just being nice.

Sitting at the table is Charlie, Fred, Portman, Catalina, Fulton and Connie. Except Fred isn't sitting down, he's giving Connie a massage.

I sit down across from them. "What are you doing?"

"He's giving me a neck massage. My neck hurts from not having a pillow."

She did not just say that. I groan and start hitting my head up against the table.

Portman winces something to Fred. Fred gets up, kisses his girlfriend and leaves with Portman. The others are still laughing at me banging myself unconscious.

"What?" Connie asks.

"I changed tents with you so you would be happy." I complained. "Not so you would complain and get a neck massage."

"Well it isn't my fault you didn't give me a pillow."

I stare at her. "It isn't my job for you to have a pillow. That's your fault, not mine. I just thought I'd be nice and give you my sleeping spot and bag so you and Guy wouldn't fight anymore. And by the way, Guy, you snore louder than you did when I lived next door."

"Well you twitch." He tries to defend himself.

"It's called shivering, Guy. You know, when a person gets cold." I gave him a 'duh' look.

"Well it isn't my fault you let Connie have your sleeping bag."

"I didn't say it was, now did I." I say and fold my arms on the table and snuggle my head into them.

"No…I guess not." he says. "I'm going to get something to eat, anyone want to come?"

"We ate." Catalina informs him.

"Samantha?"

"I don't eat breakfast." I mumble from my arms.

"Why not?" Fulton asks.

"I just don't. It makes me sick."

"Oh, I see. I'm going to go wake up someone then." Guy smiles.

"Oh no you don't." Charlie stops him. "Just because you can make your roomy miserable doesn't mean you can make everyone else miserable. I'm the captain and I don't need a bunch of miserable people for a week."

"Alright." Guy sighs and walks to the food shack by himself.

"Who said I'm miserable?" I ask Charlie.

"You're not?"

"Well I'm not happy I have to room with a guy who snores really loud, or the fact that he moves around a lot, and the fact the he kicked me, and I'm really tired 'cause I didn't get a lot of sleep, but that doesn't mean I'm miserable. I'm just trying to be nice and make other people happy."

The rest of them look at me.

"Alright, I'm miserable." I smile.

The rest of the Ducks come out of their tents within a thirty minutes time. I pretty much tune out all conversation after that, until Portman sits next to me. I guess he's back from his trip, wherever it was he went.

He says something, but I didn't hear it.

"What?" I ask picking my head up.

"Thanks, for what you did last night. I know Connie is the only one who said it, so I'm also saying it. You didn't have to."

"You're welcome." I smile. "But yes, I did have to do it; their fighting would have either made me kill them, or made me kill myself."

Portman just smiles then joins in the others conversation.


	3. Finding New Loves

**Chapter 3: Finding New Loves**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note from iluvguygermaine00 (Recommended):** Samantha is _not_ Samantha Germaine, that would be unbelievable wrong! This Samantha is based on Samantha Germaine from _Caring_, but is _not_ the same one. This Samantha has no last name right now. She's 17; I think...I'll have to check with Catalina on that...Samantha Germaine is 11, right now (Chapter 8). Alright, that's it. Unless I think of something else... Thanks to all the reviewers...enjoy!

* * *

**Julie's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

Last night was pretty good. After Samantha switched tents with Connie things quieted down a bit.

Then in the morning, Connie was complaining about her neck. We all pretty much told her to shut up, it wasn't our fault she didn't bring a pillow.

I heard earlier this morning, Fred gave her a neck massage. Lucky. Maybe he likes her, but I don't know. I guess they're really close friends or something. Once again, lucky. I got to admit, I'm jealous. I don't even have a boyfriend, let alone a really close guy friend. I better find a guy on this trip. The Ducks aren't cutting it, I'm getting lonely.

* * *

Okay, so it's the first day of the festival and I'm excited. I hope we leave soon. Everybody seems to be in an up-beat mood. 

Being the organized person I am, I'm ready to get going. But the majority of the rest of them aren't. "Hurry up!" I wail. Hey, I said I was organized, not that I don't complain.

"Calm down, Jules." Portman starts. "We'll get there sooner or later."

"Why can't it be sooner?"

"Julie Gaffney stop whining! Give up 30 minutes." Charlie says.

I roll my eyes. "C'mon, it's already one, why isn't everyone ready."

"I'm ready." Adam pipes in…ugh…suck up.

"Me too." Samantha says as she comes out of the tent she's sharing with Guy and comes to sit next to me.

"Finally." Guy glares at her.

"Don't start with me, Guy Germaine." She glares back.

"Yea, get ready!" I yell.

* * *

**30 minutes later…**

"Alright it's been 30 minutes, I'm leaving, who's coming?" I announce.

"Jules, wait a minute, not everybody is ready!" Charlie tries to calm me down.

"I have waited!" I argue.

"Jules, cool it. You'll get to go. Just give us about 10 more minutes." Guy yells from the tent.

"And you say I take a long time to get ready!" Samantha smiles.

Guy crawls out of his tent. "I can kick you out."

"You wouldn't." Samantha smiled.

"I did to Connie." he smiled and shrugged.

"No you didn't!" Samantha wrinkled her nose. "I switched with Connie."

"Yea, well I could still kick you out."

"But…" she started.

"Zip it, or you're out." Guy threatened.

Samantha stuck her tongue out at Guy…he just smiled.

It was silent for a minute.

"Let's go!" I scream and pull Samantha off the table. Then I grab her arm and run towards where I think the entrance is.

Unfortunately for me, Adam sprints faster than I do and he pulled Samantha and I back. I think she wanted to go really bad, too, because she whimpered when he pushed us back.

* * *

So, here we are, on our way to the festival, finally. 

"God, I'm so excited!" I squeal.

"We know." Ken rolls his eyes.

I just smile. We're almost to the line, to show our passes and get in.

"Everyone have their passes?" Charlie asks, being the 'responsible' guy he is.

"Uh-oh." I hear someone say from behind me. I stop dead in my tracks.

"Who said that?" I turn around on my heels.

"Jules, please don't hurt me." Connie pleads.

"How did you forget your pass?" I yell.

"Julie, calm down. People are staring!" Fulton hisses.

I just give him a tired look.

"Sorry Julie. Would somebody come back with me and look for it with me?" she asks.

She looks at all of us, one by one.

"Don't ask." I say.

Then she looks at Samantha.

"Sorry, Connie, I let you be in Julie's tent, and have my sleeping bad." She gives an apologetic look.

"Be nice." Guy looks at her.

"What? You know for a person who was fighting with Connie at midnight, you're being awfully…" Guy elbows her in the ribs. "Ow! That hurt!" Samantha gives Guy a hurt look.

"Sorry." He smiles.

What the hell…

"Oh please! Who's gonna come with me?" Connie interrupts them.

It was silent for about 5 minutes.

"Jesus Christ, I'll go with you." Fred says, sounding annoyed.

"But---." Catalina objects.

"We'll be back in 10 minutes." Fred smiles and kisses his girlfriend.

"Oh, alright." She sighs.

"Let's go." Connie commands.

* * *

Okay, so finally, we're here. Not all of us, but at least I'm here. I'm smiling so much; nothing could make my day better. 

All of a sudden, I bump into this guy and almost fall on my ass, but he catches me.

"Hi." I smile shyly.

"Hi, I'm Mark" he smiles back.

"Julie."

I see some of the Ducks roll their eyes.

"I've got to go. I have a show to do, but I'll look for you later." Mark smiles…god I love his smile.

"Okay." I blush and turn around to hear Luis making kissing noises. "Luis! Stop!" I say and hit him.

* * *

**Catalina's POV**

I'm worried. Fred said he'd be back in 10 minutes, but he isn't.

"Charlie, what time is it?" I ask anxiously.

"Uh, 5 minutes since the last time you asked." He gives me a tired look.

Where is he? Maybe he just can't find us. He wouldn't do anything with Connie. He loves me, right?

* * *

**Julie's POV**

God I'm excited. I just saw Mark's band perform. I'm looking for him, so he can find me easier.

* * *

I've spotted him and casually make my way over. I walk past him, so it doesn't look like I'm trying to get his attention. 

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turn around. It's him!

"Hi." I flash him a big smile.

"Hi, want to go get something to eat?"

"Sure." I smiled.

Who wouldn't say yes to this guy?

* * *

We ended up getting burgers and fries from some food stand and sat at a table under an open tent. 

He tells me that he's from Missouri; he's the lead singer and plays guitar in his band. They're called Lethal Cause. His favorite type of food is Italian and his favorite movie is The Matrix.

I tell him how I'm part of the Ducks, who were once Team USA, that I'm originally from Bangor, Maine and that I go to Eden Hall Academy on scholarship.

He's 18, I'm 17, this could totally work, right?

I tell him stories about the Ducks, and he tells me stories about his life and the band.

By the end of the night, I've got backstage passes for all the Ducks and myself. Cute guy and backstage passes…score! I mean who can say no to that?!

I was having a blast until Charlie made me leave…stupid Charlie, can't he see I'm in heaven?

* * *

**Connie's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

I follow Fred out from the area. Oh, my mood is not the best right now. I really didn't expect my first day to be all crappy! And no one but annoying Fred wants to help me out looking for my pass either. And they're supposed to be my friends?

"You wanna go get something to drink?" Fred asks me, probably to get me into a better mood. I immediately think of the beer-tents they have put up at several locations within the area. So I snort.

"I'm not eighteen, stupid."

"First of all, I'm not stupid," he tells me. "Second of all, I meant water or a soda or something. But if you want alcohol, I could probably get that too."

Even though the thought of getting drunk seems good, I decline. I really didn't come here to get into trouble. We walk back to the tents and while Fred's talking on his cell-phone, trying to convince someone on the other line that he needs a new pass, I sit on the rock next to Guy's tent and sulk.

"What'd they say?" I want to know, the minute Fred hangs up. He smiles at me.

"You can collect your new pass at the northern entrance," he says and waves to me. "Let's go."

Suddenly I just feel too tired to run all the way to the other side of the festival. Around the outside stages, the people and the tents. No, I'm just too wiped out right now.

Fred sits down next to me on the rock and pulls my arm. "Hello, Connie? Let's go, you'll miss that band you wanted to see. C'mon, I'll walk you there."

Why is he being so damn nice to me? Can't he see I'm upset? Actually, I don't know why I am upset, but it feels like I should be for some reason. Because of Guy, my missing bag, my sore neck and my dirty shoes. I am finally at the place I most want to be at, and I feel like crying. What's wrong with me?

Fred stops pulling my arm when he sees that I'm sad. "Look, I told you I'd take care of this, and it worked out fine!" he exclaims and puts an arm around me. "Would you like some food? I could get you into the beer-tent. They have barbeque. You like that."

Now he's being incredibly nice again. I thought he was supposed to be shy when it comes to girls. But I guess I'm just considered as his girl-buddy. A friend who happens to be a girl. "Nah, I don't know," I mumble and look at my watch. "What about the others?"

"Maybe this will cheer you up," Fred suggests and gets up. He put his arms around me and hauls me to my feet.

"What? Barbeque?" I mutter. "Let's go get my pass instead."

My mood gets better as soon as we get closer to the entrance again. Although, what's the point? When I finally get up to the box office, they haven't even heard of me.

"But it's supposed to be under my name!" I tell the cashier. "Did you look carefully? It's Connie. Connie Moreau." I begin to spell my name, but the cashier just gives me a tired look and shakes her head.

"I'm sorry, miss Moreau. I don't have any tickets or passes for you."

I leave the line and stomp back over to Fred. He's leaning against a tree with his hands in his pockets. When he sees me come running, he goes over to meet me. "What happened?"

"They didn't have my name!" I howl and slug his arm. He pushes me back.

"Did you say it was under your name?" he asks.

"Of course!" I shout and kick dirt all over his pants. "What other name was I supposed to mention? Bugs Bunny?"

"My name, maybe? They could've put it under my name."

"Well, isn't that just wonderful?" I growl. "Why didn't _you_ stand in line then?"

"You were the one losing your entrance-pass!"

I sigh and start to walk back towards the camp site. This seriously sucks. Fred walks up next to me and hands me his pass. "Take my pass, and go see that band," he offers. "I don't mind, I'll just go back and stand in line for that other pass."

I smile, forgetting all about my struggles. "Do you really think you could get me into one of those places?" The thought of doing something illegal thrills me beyond no reason. Fred is one year older than me, so he's all grown-up.

"Sure," he shrugs. "You wanna go?"

Uhm, barbeque sounds good. And drinking sounds even better. It's just fair; if the others get to see great performances, I should be allowed to party. "Can we?"

Fred grins and grabs my arm. "Sure, Con. Come on, let's just go and get drunk or something."

Sounds good.

* * *

Fred's being really sweet and caring, and that's definitely what I need right now. I guess we got a bit too much to drink, but I'm fine. We're walking back to the camp site, and man, now I'm hyper. I climb up on the rocks along the way and jump down just as fast. Then I grab Fred's arm and drag him along across the path. 

"Connie, cool down!" he laughs. I stop and begin twirling around. I wish I could feel like this all the time. My legs have their own life, and my thoughts are all packed into some sort of tinsel. My eyes can't really see further than a few inches away from my nose, but I'm still good.

We get back to the tents, and even if it's packed with people all over the place, none of our friends are back yet. Maybe they decided to stay and see the night performances as well. Fred seems a bit distracted and uncomfortable for some reason.

"Do you have anything more to drink?" I ask, just to avoid the awkward silence.

"Uh, sure," he answers. "I think I have something in my tent. I hid it from Catalina, but I'll get it for you."

Fred comes back with a bottle of liquor. Oh, he's my hero right now! I go over to stand behind one of the information-buildings, while sipping on the drink. It's quite strong, but I decide to finish it all anyway.

I fall when I try to take one step towards Fred, and he grabs me. I almost drag him down with me, but he's strong enough to keep us both standing. Had it been Guy or Adam, I'd be smashed by now.

"Wow, take it easy, Connie," Fred slurs. "Don't make me fall."

It's just something about the whole situation that makes me lose my mind completely. Fred looks at me with his brown, intense eyes, and the next minute he's kissing me. And I don't realize that I'm kissing him back until we're back at the tent. I would panic and all, but I'm not. I just need to do something really stupid right now, and this seems stupid enough.

Of course the thought of Catalina keeps popping into my mind, but it's so far back in my head, along with algebra and Guy, that I don't even care.

"Do you have anything else to drink?" I mumble, hoping that he'll ask me to stay with him a bit longer. I need it. I have been all alone since Guy broke up with me last year. He's been dating, and I've been sulking. I need to feel wanted and needed. Fred is just the type of guy you could have as a rebound. He's considerate, sweet and easy to get over.

Oh, I'm being mean, but if you only knew how badly it hurts to be dumped and thrown into a deep pit of darkness. I've been trying to get over Guy, but it's impossible when he's happy with other girls, and I never even leave my room.

Julie's been trying to fix me up with different guys, but I'm never interested in any of them. And to think, the one guy I want right now has been in front of my eyes all this time. Kissing one of my friends. Catalina, oh my God. What's going to happen to her now?

"I can check," Fred murmurs and kneels to be able to crawl into the tent.

"I can help you," I say and follow him inside. I can still hear voices around us, and people walking by our tent over and over again. Then I hear someone throw up somewhere close. Well, we're at a festival, who's not drunk here?

Fred wrinkles his nose. It makes him look kind of cute. "No, I don't have anything more to drink. Doesn't matter, you've had enough anyway."

What an insult. "I'm fine," I growl. He wipes some grass stains off my jeans, and that's my cue. I lean closer to him to proceed the kissing, and soon my thoughts mainly revolve around how good it feels to be needed again. Just like Guy had needed my once.

I hope I'm not doing this just to get back at my Mom for not trusting me to go on this trip. But I assume it's because I've been drinking far too much. Guy always claimed that I'm more easily pursued when I've been drinking. I guess that's code for being easy when I'm drunk. That must be one of the reasons why I dumped him, accusations like that.

Oh, right, he dumped me. I always forget about that part.

* * *

I wake up with a horrible headache, ouch. I haven't been drinking this much since New Years Eve. I ended up collapsing on Ken's bed, while he, Averman and Goldberg tried to get me out before Bombay discovered me. 

I look at Fred. He's lying next to me with his arm around me. His hand is resting on my stomach. It makes me sort of nauseous; could be from the drinking...

Now I have to figure out how to get out of this embarrassing situation. That thrill I was feeling before is long gone, and now I only have guilt and regret to hold on to.

"Fred?"

He opens one eye and gazes at me. "Hey."

"I think I need to leave," I mumble and reach for my clothes. Every post-sex experience I've ever had has been awkward, even though they have all been with Guy. I guess I just want the good feelings, and not the awkward feelings.

Fred removes his hand and sits up. He's still having that adorable appearance, with his hair all messed up and his eyes still not completely open. If I hadn't known how wrong it is to do what we just did, I'd stay in his arms and not worry.

But I do know how wrong it is. I feel bad, guilty, stupid and I'm sorry. What did I do? Just because I miss Guy, I go and sleep with a guy that already has a girlfriend. I know how wrong that is.

I swallow hard. I don't want to leave. I don't want to cause trouble. I don't want anyone to hate me. I don't know what I want. I just know that I don't want to leave, and that I need to stay with Fred for a little bit longer.

I really don't get that sort of time. We both get dressed, and I'm about to go to Julie's tent to sleep, when I hear voices. They're back.

Catalina sticks her head into the tent the next second, making my blood freeze and my head spin. She looks at us for a second, and then she opens her mouth to say something. She never does. She just leaves, and I feel like the worst person in the world.

I want to yell that he was the one kissing me, not the other way around. He wanted to sleep with me, and he was the one getting me drunk. But I know it's all my fault.

My Mom was right. I'm too young to go on a trip like this.

* * *

**Author's Note from Cimmy:** Please don't kill me for putting Connie and Fred together like this. Because I'll probably be killing myself for breaking Fred and Catalina up, and I'll probably have nightmares about it too. While I'm dead, of course. 


	4. Basic Feelings

**Chapter 4: Basic Feelings**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the reviews!

**KShyne99:** (Can't figure out what to call you; Tino or Katrina) Your review didn't get sent to my E-mail; sorry if you thought we're ignoring you. I don't know, it keeps doing that to your reviews, but they're just as valuable anyway! Thanks for the feedback about Connie/Fred!  
**Chelsea:** You're now Fred's biggest fan, enjoy! He's not such an ass in his usual environment; he's just a bit too excited about being in an alternate universe. And we're all a bunch of flippin' loonies sometime... percussion: I hope our weird couplings are to your liking. Can't really promise an Adam/Samantha-thing, though... Was the song Itsy Bitsy Spider?  
**plainjane:** You're seriously clairvoyant or something! First A Chaotic Wedding, and now this... Maybe you should make that as your profession? Looking into the future... Cool!

* * *

**Ken's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

Even if we had a great time earlier, it's pure chaos now. Charlie is mad at Connie because she never came back, and Guy is furious for the same reason. At least I think so, since he's growling whenever her name is mentioned. He must be planning to get her back or something. He's so obvious sometimes.

When we got back to our spot, Catalina went to find Fred. Somehow she must've found him, because she came running back, looking upset and confused. Fred wasn't far behind, but he lost her when she disappeared among the tents located below the hill.

"This is sort of normal," Portman points out. "Festivals equal sex, cheating on your girlfriend and alcohol. Right?"

"I wouldn't know about the first two things, but the alcohol part is pretty obvious," I answer and sip on my beer. "But isn't it wiser to cheat on your girlfriend if she's not on this trip? Why bring her, cheat on her and get into trouble?"

"Ah, the laws of idiocy," Portman grins. "Guys don't think that far ahead. We see something we want, and we go for it!" He slaps his hands together and throws an apple at Guy. "Right?"

"Shut up," Guy mutters. "Where is everyone?"

Suddenly Connie shows up from nowhere. She's kind of pale and I don't think she even notices that we're standing here. "Hey, Con? What's up?"

"Nothing," she mumbles. She stops to brush away some dirt from her jeans, and then she realizes that she has her sweater on backwards. "Uhm, where's Julie?"

"I don't know, probably flirting with Mark," Portman snorts. "What's happened to your clothes?"

"I fell."

"Out of them?"

"Shut up," she hisses and walks away to the bathroom. "Tell Julie to go find me when she comes back."

Portman snickers. "Wow, she looks demolished."

I turn to look for Julie, but I guess she's still playing groupie with Mark. Portman gets up to leave, but Guy stops him. "What did you mean by that?" he wants to know. Portman sighs and takes a deep breath.

"Look, Guy, I know she's your ex-girlfriend and all, but I think she's been out having some sex tonight."

"What?!" Guy exclaims. "Of course not! It's Connie, she would never do that. Maybe she's just depressed about her pass."

"Uh-huh, yeah, maybe. But you're usually depressed with your clothes on right. Unless..."

Guy looks to be having a major melt-down. "Unless what?!" he howls upset.

"Maybe she just found a guy, and then changed her mind. God knows, girls do that sometimes," Portman smiles slyly. "You have nothing to worry about, you'll win her back."

"I don't want her back," Guy shouts and jumps with rage.

I decide to contribute with my own opinions. This is usually how you get your ass kicked, but what the hell. "Of course you want her back! You've been making plans all day! You're very easy to read sometimes," I say. Guy seems to ponder over if he should punch me now, or save it for later, so I move over to stand behind Portman.

"Look, I don't want her back," Guy announces and waves his arms around. "I broke up with her for a reason. One; she's annoying. Two; she borrows my stuff without asking. Three; her mother scares me. Four; she burps whenever she's been drinking beer. Five; her nails are too long. Six; her eyes are..."

Since I just know there are at least fifty more reasons on that list he's making, I interrupt him before he gets the chance to tell us that Connie's shoes smell. "Guy, get a grip."

"Was she bad in bed?" Portman asks, and receives a very cold stare from Guy. "Well, you had everything else on that list, so I just figured..."

"I'm going to look for Charlie," Guy moans. "At least he doesn't bring up my ex-girlfriend's sex life."

Fulton comes out from the tent. "Now when you're done torturing Guy, could you help me find my pillow?"

"No," Portman and I say at the same time. Although, sleeping sounds good right about now. It's been a long day.

"Look, there's another one returning from lost battles," Portman grins and nods at Fred, who's walking back across the campsite. "Hey, did you follow my advice?"

Portman's shouting gets everyone's attention, and they all turn to stare at Fred. He's blushing, as usual. It's all he ever does. "What?"

"Did you follow my advice?" Portman yells again, even though Fred's right in front of us. "Did you find a girl to have an interesting adventure with?"

"Go to hell," Fred snarls. I've never seen him so angry before. Once again I hide behind Portman. Fred leaves to go back to his tent, and Portman just shrugs.

"Everyone's having sex," he says after a while. "Even Fred, and that makes it even more unbelievable. He's more into celibacy."

"Not anymore, obviously," I point out. "I hope he didn't do anything stupid."

"He's a guy at a campsite, a campsite filled with lots of half-naked chicks. Of course he did something stupid!" Portman exclaims. "We should be doing it too."

While Portman goes on about how festivals should be like, I just sit down and sigh, while drinking my beer. Can't I ever get some peace and quiet?

* * *

**Samantha's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

It was late when we got back from the festival, so I went straight to the tent.

I had a lot of fun. I spent most of my time with Catalina; Julie was with Mark pretty much the whole time and Connie was MIA (Missing In Action). Besides the fact that Catalina kept worrying about Fred, it was a good day. But then again, he is her boyfriend; she has the right to worry…

My thoughts were broken when Guy crawled into the tent. He looked sort of…I don't know, upset.

"What's wrong?" I ask, being nice.

"What do you mean?"

"You have a 'my-dog-just-died' look on your face."

"I'm fine. Why would anything be wrong?"

I just shrugged and lay down to go to sleep.

"Portman thinks Connie had sex with 'some guy'." He blurts out after 10 minutes of silence.

I sat up and turned around. "Since when did you believe Portman?"

"I don't know. But he knows about these things."

"Why do you even care, she's your ex---oh my god! You want to get Connie back!" I whisper.

"No!"

"Don't deny it! You have it written all over your face! You're a very easy person to read." I inform him.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!"

"Because it's true. Everything I just said is true. You want to get back with Connie."

"No, I don't." he shakes his head.

"Whatever Guy. By the way, stop lying to yourself. It's bad for your health." Then I lie down and close my eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I sigh and sit up again. "Guy, you miss Connie, Connie misses you. It's obvious. You two are meant for each other, everybody knows it. Guy, I'm tired, and I'm going to sleep. I suggest you do the same." Once again I lay down, facing away from Guy, and close my eyes.

I hear him lay down, and I'm relieved. I can't talk to him about him and Connie. He deserves her…she deserves him. That's all there is to it. Guy's a great guy…wait, what am I thinking?! I'm not falling for Guy, no, this isn't happening…

* * *

**Guy's POV**

Are Ken and Samantha right? Is it really obvious that I want Connie back?…No, it can't be.

I should really start being nice to Samantha if I want my plan to work.

...I can't believe I'm doing this. "Do you want the sleeping bag, tonight?"

"Uh…no." Samantha answered and moved further away from me.

She sounded nervous or scared, I couldn't really tell. Why the hell should she be nervous or scared…

Whatever, I'm going to sleep.

* * *

**Fred's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

I don't know how I was able to fall asleep last night, but somehow I did. Catalina never came back, and I don't blame her. Even though I'm not sure what she thinks happened between Connie and me, I'm sure she's not going to forgive me that easy.

Maybe I'm not sure I _want_ her to forgive me either. What I did last night was totally unforgivable, and I've never felt worse in my entire life. I'm never drinking again, ever. I never thought I'd be one of those horrible guys who lies and deceives their girlfriends, but now I am.

Somehow, I still feel sort of relieved. I'm not trapped anymore, and I'm not running around in circles. Catalina and I have been going through a lot of things, but these last couple of months has been tough. We almost never talk or do something together. We need to be apart, although this was a lousy way to break up with her. I should've sent her one of those cards instead. 'Sorry for sleeping with your teammate, I think we need some time apart'. Do they make such cards?

The sun wakes me up. At first I try to open my eyes, and then I hear a sound. Catalina is sitting next to me with a blank expression on her face. "Hey," I mumble and sit up.

"Hi." She gets up to leave, but I grab her arm to make her stay.

"Look, you disappeared so fast that I didn't have time to tell you that..."

Catalina throws her pillow at me. "What happened here last night?" she asks. I'm surprised that she's not sounding angry at all. Just tired and sad. Now I have to decide what to do. I could either lie, and save our relationship, or tell her the truth, and she'll leave and never come back. The question is; what do I want? Her, or less confusion?

Maybe I want Connie? I really like her. I've always liked her, but more as a friend than a girlfriend. What if I break up with Catalina, so I can find out if it's Connie I really want? But then again, what if she's not what I want, and I end up all alone? Should I spend this week with Connie, or with Catalina? Ah, man, I overanalyze everything!

I decide to at least soften the blow. "It's not what you think," I explain. "We barely even kissed."

"Why would you do that?" she continues.

"I don't know. I'm confused, I guess." I lied to my girlfriend, I cheated on her with her friend, and I'm trying to patch things up using stupid, basic break-up comments. I'm definitely going to hell when I die.

"Could you try to be less confused without sucking on Connie's face?" she mutters.

"It wasn't her fault."

"So, you just wanted to kiss her?"

"No. Okay, so it was her fault a little." Yes, I'm not just going to hell, I'm probably going to be picked up by the Devil himself. In a limousine. That'd be kind of cool, though... Focus, Fred!

"I think we should break up," she sighs. "I don't know what to think anymore. I don't care if you kissed her, or slept with her, or secretly married her. I don't trust you anymore, and I think you're a real asshole. Goodbye."

She crawls out, and I beg her to come back. She doesn't. Was I left of the hook pretty easily? Or am I in the eye of the tornado, without realizing it?

I want to cry, but I decide not to. Being in a tent and all, everyone would probably hear me. I get dressed and leave to see if I can find Connie. Maybe she knows what to do. Or maybe she'll slap me, but I deserve whatever I get.

I have mixed feelings of misery and joy. I think I have some sort of mental illness. I better go and look for a therapist while I'm at it.

* * *

**Luis's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

It's pretty early for me to be up, but I can't stand that hot tent. It's so stuffy in there. I'm the only one up…or so I thought. Catalina came out of the tent she's sharing with Fred. She looks upset.

"Hey, what's up?" I ask.

"Hi Luis. Nothing. Why are you up so early?" she asks and sits down next to me.

"Too hot in the tent. Want to go get something to eat?"

"Sure."

* * *

"God, this is awful" I smile as I take a bite out of a granola bar that taste real bad, but I'm hungry, so I'll eat it. 

"A lot of things are awful here." She smiles and then looks down as her smile fades.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." she shakes her head and starts to walk away but I grab her arm.

"C'mon, Catalina you can tell me. I'm your friend, right?"

"You are, but I don't know, Luis."

"Catalina, just tell me."

"Fred and I broke up."

"Oh, Catalina, I'm sorry. What happened?"

"He and Connie did something. I don't know what it is exactly, but they did something. I walked into the tent, and there they were."

"Are you serious?"

"Yea. But no sympathy, kay?"

"Kay. I know what'll cheer you up."

"What?" Catalina shrugged.

I give a big smile. "Let's go wake-up Charlie."

She just smiles back. I grab her hand and start to run back to out tents.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Huge co-incident over here! Yeah, right here! The singer in the band, Mark, is not the Marc from the movie _Festival_. Samantha hasn't even seen that movie, and she came up with the name. So, it's just a _co-incident_! 


	5. Making Plans of Pure Evil

**Chapter 5: Making Plans of Pure Evil**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**percussion:** We hope this chapter makes you jittery as well, even though it's maybe not as exciting as the last one.  
**plainjane:** Uhm, we've given Ken something do in this chapter, we hope you enjoy it!  
**FlatOutCrazy:** We changed our minds about Luis in this story, so he turns out to be the good guy and the savior, despite what other people might think of him. Hopefully you'll like that...  
**Chelsea:** You better finish your (probably not) lame ass website for your (probably not) lame ass fictional band, so we can check it out! Thanks for the nice words! Also, you could have Fred, but he's sort of busy with all different kinds of things right now. Obviously.  
**Tino:** Oh, how we like ranting like yours! You're the one who rocks! There are some more twists in the story later on, so stay tuned.

* * *

**Connie's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

Okay, so I've been messing with the so-called 'Boy Next Door'. So what? It was a one-time thing, right? I don't have any feelings for him at all, so why be upset for something so insignificant?

"Connie?"

I can't breathe! I like him so much!

"Yeah?"

Fred walks up to me and pays for the food I've been standing in line for. "I need to talk to you," he says, sounding sad.

"Oh." Now he's going to dump me. Not like we were dating or anything, but I'm still so hyper right now that I might blow up. I might actually blow up!

"About last night..." he mumbles nervously, afraid to even look at me. "I just talked to... You know?"

I definitely know who he's referring to. And even though I feel like the lowest human being right now, I can't help but wish that he's going to choose me. I haven't felt like this for anyone since Guy. I want to be the center of Fred's attention; I want to be treated like he always treats Catalina. Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to be the loser in this competition?

"Uh-huh," I murmur, trying to avoid being close to him. I'm so embarrassed about last night. I've never done anything like that before. The only one besides from Fred I've ever slept with is Guy.

"She broke up with me," he says, and I feel both devastated, ashamed and joyful, all at once. She doesn't want him anymore.

Fred gazes over to the outside sinks people brush their teeth at. Charlie is standing there, next to Portman and Ken. They haven't seen us yet, and Fred grabs my arm and pulls me in behind a tree. "Sorry," he sighs. "I just don't want them to see us together. No one knows what's happened. I thought we could keep it that way." He quickly removes his hand when he realizes that he's still touching me.

"I suppose that's for the best," I answer, holding back my tears. I know it's wrong to want this guy to be mine, but I haven't felt like this in a long time. I keep saying that, because it's true. Last night wasn't just about sex for me, it caused feelings I've never experienced before. Pure passion.

He keeps looking for the others while I hold my breath. "Connie, I know you're mad at me," Fred says. You think?! Choose me!

"Nah..."

"I just don't need Catalina to know the truth right now. Imagine how you'd feel if your boyfriend cheated on you with some girl! Every time I think about what we did, I want to throw up, because it makes me sick. I can't face her, and tell her that I slept with you! Being with you was the biggest mistake of my life!"

I don't wait for him to finish his heartless insult. I'm not going to be one of those girls that put up with being manipulated and thrown around like garbage. I just automatically punch him in the face, and he falls down on the ground.

"I'm sorry," I sniffle. "I just can't let you talk about me like that. Like I'm worth nothing, just because I had sex with you. You were also responsible for what happened last night, and you can't get Catalina back by insulting me."

I sit down next to him and give him my napkin. He gives me a confused but mellow look, while he's trying not to whimper. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that. You weren't the mistake, the sex was. And I deserve being slapped. I just didn't expect you to hit so hard!" he exclaims and wipes some blood away from his mouth.

Now I feel bad, even though I shouldn't. "Please don't hate me. I just don't need you to bring up how bad things were last night, because..."

"Because?"

"They weren't that bad," I mumble, feeling embarrassed and stupid. He wants Catalina back, and I behave like an annoying groupie.

Fred sits up and rolls his eyes. "No, they weren't. And I'm not insulting you on purpose. I'm just upset."

"You're upset?! What about me?!" I yell and push him back down. "You don't have the right to be upset! You can always get Catalina back, but I'll always be the first runner-up! It didn't even mean anything to you, did it? It was just sex, and you probably sleep with everyone you meet."

"Connie!"

"No, don't try and deceive me like you do to Catalina. It wasn't just sex to me, it actually meant something! Those feelings, that connection I had with you last night, I've never felt them with anyone before. It was more than just lust and passion. And even though I'm the only one having feelings here, I think I deserve some..."

"Okay, wait, wait, wait!" Fred interrupts and tries to sit up again. "You have feelings for me?"

"So what? You're still going to crawl back to your stupid girlfriend and be with her, pretending that you still love her!"

"I don't want her back!" he shouts and finally succeeds with getting up on his feet. "She's not my girlfriend anymore, and I don't have those feelings for her anymore, why else would I jump into bed with you?!"

I slap him again, and he howls. "Stop hitting me! Could you hear me out? I don't want her, she doesn't want me. And last night meant more to me than you obviously think. Do you really consider me as such a pig that I'd sleep with you without having feelings for you?"

"Wait! You have feelings for me?"

We both stand there and stare at each other for a few, long seconds. Then he looks down into the ground, takes one step closer and leans down to kiss me. I don't care if we have to keep this a secret. I'll do anything to have him, just for another night.

* * *

**Guy's point of view**

Today I have to come up with a plan to get Connie back. I need her to be here with me, because if she's not, she might sleep with 'some guy'. I hate Portman.

I decide to leave Samantha sleeping in the tent, while I'm out looking for Connie. I have to ask her about last night. Oh, she's going to be pissed at me, but I have to know the truth!

I see her over by the food-stands. She's probably going to get breakfast, and Fred's there too. I wonder where the hell he disappeared last night? Couldn't he have kept an eye on Connie for me, to keep her from jumping into bed with random guys?

"Connie!" I shout. She jumps at least two feet into the air, and Fred turns around so fast he drops his tray on the ground. "Can we talk? Hey, Fred."

"Hey," he says and blushes. That's getting seriously annoying.

"Uhm, I'd like to speak with Connie alone, if you don't mind."

Fred leaves without a word and hurries back to the tents. Connie gives me a nervous look. "What do you want?"

"I can pay for that," I offer and point at her food.

"No, I've already eaten once," she says. "Although I didn't actually get to eat that, so I had to go back for more..."

Do I really want her back? It always irritates me when she rants like that. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah."

"Where were you last night?"

"Nowhere."

"You didn't... hook up with some guy, did you?"

"No!" she shrieks and slams her tray and food into the counter.

I follow her when she quickly leaves the area. "Connie, please! I'm just concerned about you! Even though we're broken up, it doesn't mean we're not friends! I don't want you to make any mistakes, like being with some guy..."

"Stop it! Shut up!" she cries and shoves me away. "Why am I suddenly such a wanted person? Two days ago no one even looked at me twice, and now everyone wants me!"

I can't be that easy to read, can I? "I'm just asking... Did you sleep with anyone last night?" I was expecting her to yell some more, but she turns pale instead. What's with her? I realize that I'm taking this too far. "Connie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset..."

"Leave me alone!" she mumbles and begins to cry. Then she runs the other way and disappears among the tents.

So, I definitely need a new tactic to win her back. I obviously suck at this thing called love.

* * *

**Portman's point of view**

I decide to leave Fred alone today. My impact on that boy has been surprisingly huge. How was I to know that he'd actually take my suggestions under consideration? I never thought about how things would turn out if he took me serious. Is he that easy to manipulate and control? I can definitely have some fun with that!

Right now I'm more interested in that girl in the tent next to us. She's staying with four other girls, and she's been looking in our direction all morning. Who cares about Connie's secret liaisons and Fred's idiotic behavior when there's a hot girl flirting with me? I can always torture my friends tomorrow.

"Who's that girl?" I ask Ken. He's looking sort of tired, but that might be because we were up until two last night.

"Just some girl," he mutters.

"What do you mean 'just some girl'?" I shriek. "Can't you see she's sexy? She's definitely more than just a girl. I'm going to talk to her. You know, to add to the number of sexual relations within the gang."

"Good luck," Adam snorts. "She's way out of your league."

"And I suppose she's more interested in you? Or maybe she wants Kenny? Ha!"

Adam and Ken give me their most insulted gazes. What? It's not like it's not true! They're practically virgins compared to me! "Stop staring. Convince me otherwise, and I'll pay you both a hundred bucks."

"Oh, really? I know, let's make a deal," Adam says. "You have to get that girl, make her interested in you and have sex with her, or else you lose. Doesn't even have to be that girl, just any girl will do fine."

Have you ever heard of easier money? "You got it. The same goes for you. When this week is over, you better have some delicious details to share. Or I'll taunt you and bug you forever."

"You're already doing that," Ken points out and rubs his forehead. "I think I have a hang-over."

While Adam and Ken compare headaches, I decide to go and win that bet. I just have to get some candy first. When I come back, everyone's gone. Except for Fred, but I still don't want to intrude on his personal life right now. There's still time for that tonight.

Suddenly that girl comes strolling up to me. And I didn't even have to make an effort this time! I'm so going to win that bet! "Hi!" she smiles. "Are you all together?"

"What?"

"You know, like a group? You're with those three guys and that girl, right?"

Now I finally get what she means. Wow, did I totally misinterpret that question... "Uh, yeah, I guess. But we're actually eight guys and four girls."

"Oh. So, that guy, does he have a girlfriend?" she keeps asking.

"What guy? Fred? I don't know. I guess," I mutter. She's clearly not interested in me. I give Fred one tip, and he turns into every girl's dream? This is so unfair.

"No, not him. I know he has a girlfriend. He's with that brunette, right? My name is Katie, by the way," Katie says.

"Which brunette? Catalina? Yeah, that's his girlfriend," I answer, still mad at myself for teaching Fred how to get girls. "Why?"

"That girl with the long hair?"

What's with the obsession about Fred's girlfriend? God, she's driving me insane! Wait... "No, Catalina is the one with shoulder-long hair. Connie's the one with long hair. You got them confused."

"But I saw him with that other girl. Not the Latina, the girl with light brown hair. I thought that was his girlfriend. Since they slept together last night. He's sort of cute, but since he's already taken..."

"Wait!" I shout. "Fred had sex with Connie? Are you sure? Last night? In that tent?"

"I'm pretty sure," Katie replies. "It's kinda hard not to notice when people have sex around here. You know, thin walls." She's grinning, and I suppose I should make my move, but this got a hell of a lot more interesting...

Katie shrugs. "I didn't mean him anyway. That guy you were talking to earlier. You called him Adam."

Adam?! "You're interested in Adam?" I howl and give her a frightened stare. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Katie laughs. "C'mon, he's cute!"

"The blonde one? You want Adam?" I still can't believe it.

"No, not him! The other one!"

What?! "Ken?" I think I'm going to pass out soon. This is way too much information for me to handle in way too little time. Connie and Fred having sex, Katie wanting Adam. And now she wants Ken? Did I die? Is this hell? "Ken?"

"Yeah, maybe that's his name. Do you know him? Does he have a girlfriend?" Katie asks curiously.

"You don't want him," I snort, thinking about that bet. "He's a virgin." Okay, now I'm just making things up, but I have to do something!

"Cool, that makes it even more interesting. I'll go and talk to him."

Katie disappears and I curse. A lot. Then I throw evil glimpses at Fred. He's still sulking. At least he's stopped blushing every two seconds, but still... It's all his fault. If I hadn't told him to play the field, none of this would've happened. I need revenge.

The best revenge ever downs on me. Fred slept with Connie. No one knows about that. I even doubt Catalina knows about it. What if I tried to get Catalina away from Fred? Not only would I win the bet, I'd have my revenge on Fred too!

Oh, I got to go find Catalina at once!


	6. The Tree of Thoughts

**Chapter 6: The Tree of Thoughts**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Tino:** Ah, you're waiting for Adam to surrender to you? Yeah, that boy could need some action. Although he's still on that bet, so who knows what will happen to him? And Ken probably won't be a virgin for much longer. Just a thought.  
**Chelsea:** Is this like an episode of Friends? I need to watch that show a bit more often. It's more of a Melrose Place kind of thing, him sleeping with her, she's killing his cat, he's pretending to be gay, and she marries a turtle. Just another thought.  
**plainjane:** Yeah, let's just see how stupid the people get in this chapter, shall we? Guy's really good at being confused, and Catalina sure is stupid sometimes. But yay, Ken did get the girl!

* * *

**Fred's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

Guy just came over to talk to Connie, alone. So, I decided to take a walk, clear my thoughts.

I don't know. I mean I love or loved Catalina. Or did I? We made each other happy, but does that mean we were in love?

I know I at least liked Catalina at one point in time, but I really like Connie. She's perfect. Guy was lucky, but stupid to let her go. I wonder if he wants to get back together with her. I heard some of the guys talking last night, about he's supposedly planning a way to get her back…Nah, probably not. Connie's great, but Guy isn't the kind of guy to admit he was wrong or crawl back to others.

I stop because I see Catalina. She's sitting with Luis and Charlie is yelling at them. She's smiling and laughing with Luis. Then her head turns. Damn, she saw me. Her smile fades and she stares at me. I decide to turn around and walk away.

Maybe I should go with my feelings on Connie. I should give it a try, what could it hurt, right?

* * *

**Samantha's POV**

When I wake up, I find myself alone. This is sort of a disappointment, considering what I was thinking about last night. But overall, I'm happy. This is a good sign. It means I don't like Guy; I'm not falling for him. And even if I did like Guy, but I don't, I wouldn't try anything. That would go against what I said last night, on how Connie and Guy are meant to be. (Hey! That rhymes!)

I yawn and start to crawl out of the tent when something runs into me and I fall back into the tent, landing on a rock. "Ow!"

The something is Guy. "Sorry. Are you okay?" he asked as he helped me up.

"I think so. What's up with you?"

"Nothing."

"Whatever." I shrugged and started to walk away.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" Guy asked.

"I don't eat breakfast." I turned around and reminded him.

"So, just come with me."

I roll my eyes. "Fine." I shrugged.

Why the hell is he being so nice to me? Before we come to South Carolina he'd barely even talk to me…

* * *

**Charlie's POV**

I can't believe Luis and Catalina woke me up this morning! I really think it was uncalled for. And of course they woke up Adam first, so he could help them. But he left as soon as I woke up.

This isn't the greatest vacation. First of all, Connie's not supposed to be here, then she and Guy start to fight, which leads Samantha to switch tents with Connie and Samantha's not happy in the morning. Then Connie forgets her pass and her and Fred never came back to the festival yesterday. Julie meets her 'dream-guy' and is pissed at me for making her leave last night. Portman is causing trouble with his advice and accusations. … People don't think I know what goes on 24/7, but I do, it's the captain's job. … Can this vacation get any worse?…

"Hey, who's that girl with Ken?" I think about loud.

"Katie." Portman growls and glares over to them.

Yes! I'm not the only miserable one, right now. "So, you're not happy that a girl likes Ken?"

"It's okay. I've got plans of my own." Portman gave a sly smile.

"I don't like that look in your eyes. Don't get yourself into trouble."

He just shrugged and walked away.

* * *

**Guy's POV**

Samantha and I are sitting at a table in silence while I eat and she stares at a tree.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" I ask.

She doesn't answer.

"Hello?!" I say waving my hand in her face.

Samantha jumps back a little bit. "Huh?

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" I ask again.

"I'm fine." she says and goes back to looking at the tree.

"So, what does a guy have to do to get that much attention?"…Okay, so that came out a little sudden, but I guess it could be a conversation starter, I mean, I've never actually seen her with a guy, unless she's hanging out with one of the Ducks.

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked and took her eye of the tree.

"You're staring at that tree like you're in love with it or something."

"Sorry."

"What's so special about the tree?" Okay, maybe I'm starting to obsess over the tree a bit, but if she's staring at it that hard then there has to be something about it.

"Nothing"

"Then why do you keep staring at it?" Maybe I should just drop the tree subject.

She shrugged and looked away. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"What do you mean?" Now I'm confused.

"You barely ever talk to me and now it's like you're my best friend."

"Just trying to be nice I guess. I am sharing a tent with you." I shrugged. "Why, is it wrong to be nice to someone?"

She shrugged…god there's a lot of shrugging going on today. "I don't know. Are you almost done?"

"Yup." I say as I start to pick up my stuff.

"I'll meet you back at camp, Kay?" Samantha said as I got up to throw away my garbage.

"Wait." I said and grabbed her arm.

She turned around. "What?"

We're really close together, just staring into each others eyes. So, I kissed her.

* * *

**Samantha's POV**

Oh my god, Guy's kissing me. He's a pretty damn good kisser. Wait this is wrong, I don't like Guy. I pulled away. "Guy what are you doing?" I said quietly as I stumbled backwards. I'm feeling really uncomfortable right now.

"I don't know, it just felt right." He shrugged and smiled.

We stood there in silence for about 10 minutes.

"I think I'm gonna go take a walk." I said and turned around and walked away.

"Bye." Guy mumbled.

* * *

During my walk I found this humongous rock to sit on. I sit there, thinking for a few hours. 

Why did he have to kiss me? I keep telling myself that I don't like Guy, but he just proved me wrong. This isn't fair. Why do I have to fall for a guy who already has a match, a perfect match?

Why did he have to be my first kiss? Maybe it wouldn't have matter if he wasn't…but anyways, I'm so pathetic. I'm 17 when I have my first kiss…by a guy who has already found a girl. This is just great…

* * *

**Guy's POV**

So, I just kissed Samantha, but she pulled away. I think she felt a little uncomfortable 'cause she left.

So, I guess that helps with my plan to get Connie back. I didn't plan to do that, just yet, but I did. It was just the way we were standing, sort of like in the movies.

I don't know what to do now; I guess I'll go back to camp, maybe try to talk to Connie again.

* * *

I can't find Connie, but I found Charlie. "So what time are we leaving?" 

"Shhhh!" he hissed. "Julie's still asleep, and I don't want her up. She'll just rush us around so she can go see that dude…Mike or something."

"Mark?" I corrected him.

"Yea, whatever." He shrugged.

I walk into my tent to start to get ready. Julie got us backstage passes, I can't wait.


	7. Mistaken Thoughts

**Chapter 7: Mistaken Thoughts**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** There are some sexual references in this chapter, but nothing detailed. Just a warning. Consider this as an R rated chapter.

**Tino:** No, a scheming Portman is never good, especially not when he's being all... evil and stuff. And just wait; there'll be more action for Guy pretty soon. Uh, yeah, and good luck with Adam!  
**Chelsea:** Just hang on, because things will heat up because of the dirty, rotten bet in this very chapter. Oh, and cheesecake is disgusting, thank you for reminding me...  
**FlatOutCrazy:** Guy _is_ being stupid! But definitely not the stupidest, for once. And Luis is not going to be the villain, so you can just stay happy for a while longer!

* * *

**Fulton's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

Portman is up to something. I know him well enough to understand that he's making plans. I don't know what they're regarding, but somehow I have the feeling that it has to do with that ridiculous bet he made with Adam and Ken. Adam told me about it, and Portman, being the most competitive idiot on the planet, is definitely expecting to win.

Instead of waiting for Portman to tear down the sky, I decide to go with Julie to see Mark. She was driving Charlie crazy with her cheering, so he begged me to go with her to Mark's performance. Guy is also tagging along, looking mischievous in his own sort of way.

"You've been awfully content lately," I tell him. "What's up? Did you get a free banana in the canteen?"

"No," he answers, shrugging. Julie leaps over some mud and contributes to the conversation in her own special way.

"A free T-shirt from Mark's band?" she wonders. Every sentence that comes out of her mouth has to contain the name 'Mark'. "A coffee mug with Mark on it? A CD made by Mark's band?"

"The girl keeps spinning, and the boy runs wild, will she ever get him, or will he get away?" I laugh, grinning at Julie. "You're the girl, Julie."

"Yeah, I sort of got that part," she mutters. "And I'm the wild one, not him. He can spin."

"I bet he can," I tilt my head towards her. "But how would you know?"

Guy clears his throat. "Could someone explain to me what you're talking about? What's with the whole chanting thing?" he demands to know. I just wave him off.

We walk in through the entrance, Julie brandishing her backstage pass in front of the guard's nose. Guy and I have to tear her away from there, before they arrest her for being annoying.

Once we've tugged her into the concert area, she immediately begins looking for Mark. "They should be performing over there," she shouts, making people turn to stare. We stare back until they feel intimidated. "Over there!"

"Yes, we heard you," I mutter, rolling my eyes at Guy. He snickers, pulling Julie down from the bench she is standing on. "What's the name of his band again?"

"Can't remember," Julie cheers. "Oh, look, a flyer!"

Julie runs off to chase a piece of paper. She reminds me of a cat. Ha, Julie the Cat! Eh, yeah... "Lethal Cause," Guy muttered next to me.

"What?"

"The band is named Lethal Cause. But don't tell Julie that. She'll freak out."

"She already is," I snicker, watching Julie jump right into a pile of mud, splashing dirt all over the people standing next to her. We both go over to save her from being strangled. I hope we find Mark soon, or I'll kill her myself.

* * *

**Luis's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

Waking up Charlie with Catalina this morning was fun. But I didn't do it for my amusement…well not completely anyway. She looked like she needed cheering up.

Everyone knows that Catalina knows how to hide her feelings, well. But there was a look in her eyes when she came out of the tent this morning. Emptiness.

Yes, I know, I'm not the greatest person to tell how people are feeling. But it's different with Catalina. There's something about her. Like, I can read how's she's feeling. I've never been able to do that with any other person, let alone a girl.

Why do I have this sudden urge to be there for her? She's nice to everyone, besides the occasional outburst, but who doesn't have one? She's hyper, most of the time, and seems over up-beat and happy…But this morning, she seems down. Like she had been hit by a bus or something.

* * *

I try and convince her to come with me, Charlie, and Samantha down to the festival, but she refuses.

* * *

I have to admit, I think I'm starting to have feelings for Catalina, maybe not a crush, but the feeling that she needs me. But it isn't a small thing, like a fling (hey that rhymed!) it's more than that. But I'm going to take it slow, to become her friend, more than I already am. Even if she won't admit it, she's vulnerable and I don't want her thinking that I'm trying to take advantage of her…that's not what I want her to do, I want her to trust me.

* * *

We find Julie and she's staring at Lethal Cause, Mark's band. I actually really like the song they're singing. It isn't really hard rock, come to think of it, it isn't really rock at all, probably just something they thought of… 

_I dig my toes into the sand.  
The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket.  
I lean against the wind, pretend that I am weightless and in this moment I am happy. _

_I wish you were here  
I wish you were here  
I wish you were here  
I wish you were here. _

_I lay my head onto the sand.  
The sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it.  
I'm counting ufo's.  
I signal them with my lighter  
And in this moment I am happy, happy. _

_I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here. _

_The world's a roller coaster and I am not strapped in.  
Maybe I should hold with care, but my hands are busy in the air. _

_I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here.  
I wish you were here._

* * *

**Charlie's POV**

This trip is going to hell! Nobody seems happy!…okay, so the majority of us is happy and I'm exaggerating, a lot. Come to think of it, Catalina's the only one who doesn't seem happy. But whatever. The girl is way too much for me to handle. She woke me up; early…I bet it was her idea, too.

* * *

**Adam's POV**

I'm having a lot of fun on this trip. I have a bet with Ken and Portman…but pff, I'm here to have a good time. If I find a girl, then I do…If I don't, I don't. Where was I…a good time, right? That's why I got us these tickets, because I really wanted to go.

So, here we are, at the festival…again. I came with Ken and that girl…Katie, that's her name. But they get boring. So I leave them for Charlie, Luis, Fulton, Guy and Samantha and end up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. It's sort of weird, in a way. It's like none of them are actually here…like in their heads…no physically you freak! Of coarse they're here physically…never mind. Charlie seems aggravated about something. Luis is thinking really hard, which normally isn't a good thing. And Guy and Samantha are both acting strange. He seems to be trying to talk to her, but Samantha seems very uninterested. Maybe it's because she's the only girl right now, maybe she's feeling left out. Julie's with Mark, Catalina refused to come, according to Luis, and Connie was with Fred the last time I saw them…why, I don't know. Girls are complicated…well our 4 girls are. I love them and everything, but they should really be more readable…I should be able to tell what they're thinking, like I can with most of the guys, especially Guy.

* * *

**Julie's POV**

Mark's great.

* * *

**Connie's POV**

Fred's great. He's a really good kisser.

* * *

**Catalina's POV**

What am I doing…?

* * *

**Samantha's POV**

Does Guy ever shut-up? Just leave me alone, dammit! Can't you see the expression on my face…I don't care!

Why am I falling for him…why couldn't it be someone quiet…someone like…Adam!…well maybe not but, oh well.

* * *

**Catalina's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

Even though I liked terrorizing Charlie this morning, I still feel sad because of the breakup. Fred always does this. He gets into trouble, and then he wants me to forgive him. But he's never cheated on me, ever. That's why it feels so bad right now, despite the fact that I'm not sure if something really happened.

Yes, okay, I was the one breaking up with him, but I found him in bed with one of my closest friends. Or in the sleeping-bag, tent, whatever. How could he do that to me? And Connie? I thought she was my friend!

Luis is being surprisingly understanding, I figured he'd take Connie's side. But of course, he's not really that sure something happened between her and my boyfriend either. I guess I always thought of Luis as someone you couldn't cry out with. Not that I was crying, I'd never do such a thing. I just told him that I felt awful, and he spent the morning trying to entertain me.

Now I'm alone again. Luis decided to go see some performance with some rock band. Jeez, at a rock festival? Who would've known? He tried to get me to tag along with him, Charlie, Adam and Samantha, but I wasn't in a very partying mood.

"Hey, babe!"

Oh, no. It's Portman. He's been following me around all day, wanting me to keep him company on his adventures. Why? Why me?! Argh!

"Hi, dude," I mutter, throwing a quick glimpse at him. "What's up now? I won't go with you to the girls' bathroom, alluring innocent young girls into your nasty arms."

"Hey, it was just a suggestion!" he laughs. "We could go somewhere else."

"What about Fulton? Ken? Julie? Anyone but me?"

"Fulton left me all by myself. And you're the only one here! Suffer!"

"Oh, believe me, I am!" I growl.

Portman is like a band-aid on me. He just won't leave me alone. Should I be flattered or something? No! He's just messing with me! While he's bringing me along to the beer-tents, which I am still too young to enter, I try to come up with a plan to sneak away. Portman is scary when he's nice and sweet. And if he treats you to stuff? Run, girl, run!

"You want something?" he asks for the hundredth time. I've turned him down every time, but he still doesn't quit. He's persistent; I have to give him that.

"For the last time, Dean. I'm not allowed to go in, I'm not 18!"

"Don't call me that," he mutters, and this is the first time he actually sounds irritated with me. Usually I drive him crazy just by my presence. Then he suddenly changes his attitude again and grins. "You want a burrito?" He's so freaking me out right now.

While he tries to convince the bouncers that I am in fact 18, I sneak away back to the tents. I'm just about to turn the corner, when I see Connie over by the canteen. She's sitting on one of the tables, counting money. Fred is there too, leaning over her hand, like he's trying to help her count. This makes my heart break.

I thought I was his everything. I thought I meant everything to him. And now he doesn't love me at all. His eyes are focused on Connie, like he's never really cared about me at all. I used to be the object of his affection, and now I'm forgotten. Just like that. I should be the content one, since I dumped him. But I'm the miserable one. The cheated one. The loser.

Connie looks around, and I hide behind one of the benches. Then she leans closer, and kisses Fred. Not just a peck on the lips, but a real kiss. Like she's trying to suck the life out of him. Maybe not, but it still makes me want to throw up. Fred slips his arms around her waist, and they keep kissing, right there in front of everyone.

Fred doesn't care about me anymore. His attention is directed towards someone else now. And suddenly Portman's efforts to get _my_ attention don't seem so bad. At least he knows I'm alive.

I could need some attention. Now when I'm all alone again.

* * *

**Portman's point of view**

I don't really know what I did to win that girl over to my side, but it must've been my charming behavior. She agreed to let me get her into the beer tent, and honestly, I didn't think it was going to be _this_ easy to win that bet...

Catalina is hammered. I almost feel bad for what I'm about to do. She is after all a friend of mine. A fellow Duck, and I don't know why I so desperately need to win this bet.

Actually, I can't really remember what the rules were. I know that I have to sleep with her, and right now, that's easy. But for the other parts? Uh, what were they again? Getting her to like me? Well, I can't say that I think she's going to be all that happy if I sleep with her. That would definitely bring down the liking-part.

This also means that I have to admit to Adam and Ken that I slept with her. They won't like that either. They'll probably tell everyone here, and also everyone at home when we get back. Am I really this eager to lose all of my friends' trust, just because of a bet?

What the hell, it's just a stupid bet, right? No one said anything about _who_ you had to be with!

Catalina is still drinking quite heavily, and I'm not all that sober either. It makes the guilt go away, at least some.

"You know," I begin. "You don't have to feel down because of Fred. He's just a guy, guys do stupid things."

I haven't told her that I know that Fred slept with Connie. I thought I could save that for when the situation craves it. I can be her shoulder to cry on. I think.

"I'm still not sad about him," Catalina slurs. I haven't seen her this drunk in a very long time. When I come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen her drunk. I've just heard tales about it.

"No, of course not," I snort, moving closer. I'm the worst guy in the world, and I know how to pull it off. It's like I said to Fred before; I need the thrill of just doing wrong, and I know how to do it without letting my conscious get in the way. So sue me!

Catalina sighs loudly and gazes out through the tent opening. I quickly shove her towards the other side of the tent, so she won't get any ideas about leaving.

Instead of leaving, she lies down next to me, with her feet in my lap. "I hope I can stay here for a while," she murmurs. "I really don't have anywhere else to go anymore."

I wish everything could be this easy.

* * *

**Catalina's point of view**

I don't know what I'm doing. I rarely do. I just know that it feels good to not be completely alone. Portman is somehow the person I need right now.

"So, what's the deal with you and Fred anyway?" he asks, taking my bottle of life-saving vodka away. That's mine! Okay, he got it for me, but still...

"Nothing," I answer shortly. I can't say much, my mouth can't get the words out correctly.

"You wanna have revenge on him, don't you?"

"No," I say. I don't think so. I mean, I'm not completely sure about him sleeping with Connie yet. I just know that he kissed her. That was a very low thing to do, by the way.

"You know what would be an awesome revenge?"

"What?"

Portman grins at me and hands back the bottle. I take another huge sip, even though I'm already so wasted that I can't even feel my legs. "If you find some guy, and went with him. Right in front of Fred's nose. Or right under his nose, you're kind of short, babe."

I rub my eyes, trying to get that dizzy feeling to leave my body. What's he doing?

"Yeah," I agree. I am short, but what's that got to do with this? Portman leans into my face, putting his hand behind my head. Then he brings me closer, giving me a kiss. One of those soft kisses that Fred used to give me when I was feeling sad. I thought I'd never be kissed like that again.

Now I'm so clueless that I barely pay attention to what's going on. It's Portman, right? Not some stranger. He won't do me any harm; he'll make sure I'll be okay, right? It's only Portman.

His hands begin to wander all over my body, and he pushes me onto my back. This feels weird. I should squirm my way out of here before I end up in trouble. But somehow his arms seem like the safest place to be in right now. Everyone else just stabs me in the back. At least Portman's intentions are clear.

"You know, this is just how to handle revenge," he mumbles into my ear. I'm not so sure he's being upfront with me. He just seems very... aroused right now.

"Wait," I say, shoving him away. "Wait!"

"What? I thought this was what you wanted," he replies. "Come here, honey."

I hate when he calls me babe and honey. It makes me feel inadequate. "Okay..." I whisper, still not sure about what's going on. Portman lowers himself onto me again and continues to kiss me. Over my neck, cheek, down over my shoulder, over my collar bone and then back to my mouth. I wrap my arms around his neck and try to just go with the flow.

Portman is quite heavy, being on top of me like this. I accidentally dig my finger-nails into his shoulder, but he doesn't seem to notice. He removes my sweater, and I just let him. I'm not doing anything; I just let him take the lead. That's not a recommended thing to do, but I'm stupid.

I squeal with pain when he puts his knee on my thigh, so I quickly spread my legs to avoid getting kneeled again. He just continues to remove my clothing, kissing me everywhere he can reach. He seems content that I allowed him to make himself comfortable between my legs, instead of lying on top of them. Well, I'm here to please, obviously...

My hands keep squeezing his back, and my nails dig even deeper into his skin. I try to avoid doing that, since it must hurt, but he doesn't seem to care at all. Maybe he's used to doing things rough? I'm not, and he's not being very careful with me. That's why I keep pressing my fingers into his back.

It's some sort of mixed feeling of pain and pleasure. It hurts, but somehow it evens out in the end. I hope. I just can't stand it if this is how it's going to feel when it's all over and done with. It can't be this bad, can it?

Then I can't remember much more. Just a very intense feeling that I've made a mistake. That I'm making a mistake right now. Portman is nothing like Fred was, he used to kiss me lovingly, soft. Portman's kisses are hungry, rough, demanding. I'm not used to that.

I'm a very tiny person compared to Portman, or anyone. If he wants, he could probably do whatever he pleases with me, but he doesn't. I should give him some credit, he's not a monster. I'm confused, and he's... well, horny.

I don't have the might to bring myself to speak up. I'm just not that type of person. Fred used to tell me that I'm a real pushover, even though I stand my ground. What's that supposed to mean?

My hangover is the one thing that strikes me first. Not my pounding heart or the lack of air. Somewhere between being kissed by Portman and now, I suddenly sobered up. I whimper when I feel my head ache. My whole body is tense because of the damn alcohol. Or maybe because of something else, but I really don't need to know from what right now.

"What happened?" I ask, putting my hands in front of my face. I feel Portman move somewhere next to me, but he doesn't answer. "Hello?"

"I heard you," he mutters. My, he's grumpy after sex. I should be too, but my head is killing me.

"So?"

"Go back to sleep," he instructs me. I crawl up into a ball, fighting the urge to kick him someplace important. And now the panic strikes. What the hell did I do?! And most important; what the hell did he do to me? He took advantage of me while I was drunk. That's not very nice!

I gasp for air and sit up. "Oh my God," I wince quietly. "What happened?"

This is not a very nice feeling. He slept with me, and I have no idea what he did to me. Did he at least use a condom? Or am I just screwed completely? I'm the biggest idiot in the world. A moron. It's all my fault for falling for his lame tricks. I should've known this was what he wanted the whole time!

"Calm down," he says, turning to face me. Now he sounds worried, probably because he doesn't want me to freak out, so the others will find out. "You're just as responsible for this, babe."

"How could you do that?" I mumble. "When you knew I was drunk? When you knew I was hurt and vulnerable?"

"Hey," he begins, but I freak out before he can continue.

"I'm only sixteen, you jerk. What you did is a felony!"

"Look, don't get all worked up..."

"You're eighteen, you should know better!" I shout, and he starts to move around.

"Be quiet!" he tells me. "You're going to be seventeen in just a few months."

"But I'm still just sixteen!" I bellow and try to find my clothes. I'm sore from his treatment, and suddenly I just get the urge to hit something. Instead I start to cry, which seems to scare him.

Portman quickly rises to his knees, putting a hand over my mouth. "Okay, okay, Catalina, calm down! Shush," he mumbles. He actually called me by my real name? I must've scared the hell out of him. "I'm sorry you're upset. You want me to..."

I push him away. "Get off me! I don't want you to do anything to me! You've done enough." I'm so shaken up that I can't think straight. I put on my clothes, while Portman's trying to excuse himself. Although I find his excuses very lame, since he sounds really uninterested. This is just another thing he can add to his resume. I'm just another girl in his collection.

My lips are sore too, I don't know if it's because of his violent kisses, or because I bit my lip while he was... hurting me, which would be the expression to use, I guess.

He grabs me before I can escape out from the tent. "Look, we both made some mistakes," he says slowly. "This shouldn't destroy our friendship."

"You ass!" I exclaim and shove my hands into his chest. He stumbles backwards and I can finally get out of there.

What do I do now? I have no place to go.

I guess I have to sleep outside, in the dirt. Just because Portman is such a disloyal friend, and I'm the most naive person in the whole entire world. And the stupidest.

This is all my fault, really.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Lyrics belong to _Incubus_, the song is called _Wish You Were Here_. 


	8. Forgiving, Forgetting and Finding Out

**Chapter 8: Forgiving, Forgetting and Finding Out**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Emily:** Eh, we hope this chapter was quick enough; we'd hate it if we had to fight off Portman. Well, maybe not. Fred's being a bit of a jerk, but he'll come around. Hopefully.  
**FlatOutCrazy:** So, you're officially the new mind-reader. Seriously, you completely unveiled the plot. Hmmm, you deserve a prize for that, but you'll just get this update.  
**Chelsea:** Don't you worry; Portman will also come around eventually. And thank you for your awesome reviews! Please stay tuned, there will be some more commotion soon.

* * *

**Luis's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

There is no sun when I crawl out from the tent this morning. Earlier I heard raindrops hit the fabric, making those drum noises that are really annoying at 5.00 am in the morning. Ken is still sleeping; he was out late partying with his new crush. Some of the others went with them, so I don't expect anyone to be up to join me for breakfast.

There was some commotion here last night as well. Drama, ah, who could live without it? Fulton announced that Portman had some girl in his tent, he'd heard them talk or something. But when he questioned Portman about it, Portman refused to say who it was. He's usually bragging like crazy when he's been with a girl. I guess he struck out, ha!

Speaking of the Devil. Portman shows up from the bathroom, but pretends that he doesn't see me. I sigh. What did I do? He stops when he's almost at the tent, turns around and walks back.

"I guess you're here to torture me with your questions," he snaps. I haven't even said anything! What the hell is wrong with him today? "Well, I'm tired of being gossiped about. Just say what you have to say, and let's get back to our lives!"

"Eh, good morning?" I try, raising my eyebrows. "How are you today?"

"Very funny," he mutters.

I begin to walk towards the canteen, and he follows me. "Okay, since you're dying to tell me; what were you up to last night?" I finally ask.

Portman throws his hands into the air, moaning. "I knew you were going to ask!"

"We all know about the girl," I explain, slightly smiling. "Was it one of those chicks from the tent next to us?"

"What girl?" he asks, sounding horrified. "What are you talking about?" He looks panicked, so I try to make things better by staying away from the subject of his nightly adventures.

"Wanna grab something to eat?" I say.

"What girl?!" he howls, completely hysterical.

"I don't know! Some girl, I don't know who she was!" I shriek back. He's making me nervous. "Shouldn't you at least know who she was? I was just trying to have a conversation with you!"

"She was just some girl," he mumbles. "How did you know that she was there?"

"Well, you weren't exactly quiet. Fulton went back to get some money, but he heard that you were occupied with something important in the tent, so he just came back and told us about it."

"You heard us?" Portman exclaims, his face turning bright red. I've never seen him blush before, and it's very entertaining. I nod, trying to disguise my amusement. "Eh, you know, it wasn't like that..."

"Hey, I wasn't there, I don't know what Fulton heard. I just assume that it was the usual noises. You know, you make sounds when you have sex. But she was being quite loud, Fulton said," I chuckle. He just stares into the ground for a moment.

Suddenly he grabs my arm. "Luis? What if I did something really wrong and I was really regretful about it. Would you forgive me?" he wonders, sounding awfully serious for being Portman.

"I suppose so," I reply. "Depends on what you did."

"If I slept with someone I shouldn't have slept with, just to prove a point and get revenge?" he continues, still with his questioning voice.

I shrug. "That's not a very nice thing to do to a girl. But I guess I don't really have a problem with it. Unless it's someone I care about, but I assume it's not?"

"No," he mumbles. "No, you don't know her. I was just asking. Don't tell the others."

Jeez, people just keep confiding in me during this vacation, don't they? First Catalina and now Portman. I guess it's because I'm not all that into gossiping. I'm delighted that people entrusts me with things.

"Sure thing," I smile. He walks back to the tents, and I take up the hunt of that breakfast.

Breakfast has to wait several more minutes, because I find Catalina along the way. She's standing over by one of the water hoses, splashing water into her face. I decide to go see if she's okay. She had a really bad day yesterday, and she was still sad when I left her to go see the Bad Cash Quartet.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" I ask her. She jerks her head up, startled by my question. I give her a look of concern. She doesn't look too happy. Actually, she looks like hell.

Catalina takes one step back, trips over a rock and almost falls into a tree. I hurry up to her to catch her before she falls. "Watch it," I tell her, helping her get her balance back.

"Get off me!" she shouts, pushing me away. People are awfully grumpy this morning.

I try to get her to calm down. "Take it easy, will you? I was trying to help you. Did something happen to you? Why aren't you in your tent, sleeping?" Catalina looks upset by my question, her hands are shaking. Now I'm beginning to get worried. What's happened to her?

"I don't really have a place to go anymore, since Fred's in our tent and everyone else just doesn't give a damn!" she howls, shaking even more.

"Catalina, come one! Tell me what's wrong! You can trust me, I'll help you out! Just tell me, and I'll do whatever it takes," I beg her. She's my friend, and if she feels bad, I should try to comfort her the best I can. I'd do that to anyone of my friends if they were in trouble.

There is a long silence between us. I leave her alone, I figure she needs space. Then she breaks down and cries, so I pull her into my arms to soothe her. At first she tries to shove me away again, but then she surrenders and puts her head against my shoulder. She's sobbing violently, her hands resting on my arms. I notice how tiny she is, crawled up in my embrace like this. She's this tiny little girl, shaking in my arms, crying like the world has just ended.

"Oh, Luis," Catalina whispers. "I can't tell you. You'd hate me. I just know that you'd loathe me forever."

This makes me upset. Nothing could ever make me hate my friends! "No, I won't hate you! It's not that bad," I promise her, stroking her back with my hand. "If you tell me, I promise that I'll do anything to help out."

"You would?" she sniffles, still gasping for air. She grabs my sweater with her fingers, holding on real tight. I look at her hands, and they're still shaking.

More rain comes pouring down over us, and I lead her towards one of the shelters. I pick her up and place her on the counter of a closed ticket booth. Catalina is still clutching on to me, her arms around my neck. We stay like that for a long time, Catalina sobbing into my shoulder while I'm just hugging her to give her comfort.

"Please," I say. "Tell me how I can make this better." I wipe away the tears from her eyes, while she's pulling herself together long enough to stop shaking.

"You know how I told you about Fred and Connie? I saw them kiss yesterday, and I don't think I handled it all that well," she says with a low voice, swallowing hard. "I got drunk."

"You're allowed to get drunk under these circumstances," I explain. "Did they really kiss? Right in front of you?"

"No, they didn't know I was there."

"Don't be upset because of that! It'll work out fine, I promise. He's just stupid for letting you go. He'll come around."

"Not when he finds out what I did," she whispers, her voice trembling. "No one's ever going to want me now. I did something horrible."

When she starts to cry again, I sigh. "Catalina, just tell me!"

"I slept with someone else last night. And I can't stand myself. I hate me. I get sick just thinking about it. I feel like the lowest human being right now, and I just want to kill myself."

Okay, this was far more serious than I first thought. I just figured she was depressed about the breakup, I never expected something like this. I always thought of Catalina as this reasonable girl, one of those girls who always knows how to stay away from trouble. And now she throws this at me? "Who was it?" I want to know, feeling anger towards the person who'd take advantage on someone like this. She's just a young, helpless girl, for God's sake!

Catalina shakes her head. "Doesn't matter. It was all my fault anyway."

Now I get even angrier. "Of course not!" I raise my voice. "Don't you ever think that! Did he hurt you? He didn't... rape you, did he?" The word gets stuck in my throat, and I don't know if I can handle her answer.

"No," she sniffles. "But thanks for being concerned about me. I don't think I'd tell anyone but you about this."

"You can always talk to me," I say, giving her another hug. "Do you want me to talk to him? Do you need to talk about what happened?"

"No, I don't feel like it," she murmurs. "I'm just going to do this by myself. I don't want you to feel obligated..."

I put my hand on her arm. "It won't be because I have to. I want to help you out. You can't do this on your own. I'll help you. Was it just some stranger?"

"What do you take me for?" she shouts. "Of course not."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted to know if it meant something. Did it?"

Catalina shrugs, jumping down on the ground again. "At one point, I think it meant something. But then it just became too scary."

"Did he hurt you?" I repeat.

She seems reluctant to answer at once. "You won't tell anyone, right?"

"No, I promise. Catalina, did he hurt you?"

"Yeah, I guess he did," she mumbles. "But not on purpose. I'm just... I've only been with Fred before. And he used to be really careful. With this guy, I'm not even sure if we used protection. I have no idea what he did to me. I just know that I ended up at a strange place, with a hangover, my body aching."

I close my eyes and try not to find the whole situation too unpleasant. But I can't help it. Who would do such a terrible thing? "Who was it?"

"Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not being mad at you. If you tell me, I could talk to him; try to get him to apologize." Or beat him up. Whatever suits the situation best.

She slowly opens her mouth, looking scared and nervous. "He didn't do anything wrong. He just slept with me. Please don't hate him."

It's someone I know.

"Catalina..."

"It was Portman."

I clench my fists in pure anger. I can't think straight. That bastard, trying to talk me into forgiving him for doing such a horrible thing to one of our friends!

Before Catalina has the chance to stop me, I run off to find him. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind, and it won't be nice. Just as long as the others won't know about this. I promised to keep it a secret, and I can't break a promise like that. But what I CAN do is try to solve this problem.

Preferably by punching Portman for being such an inconsiderate jerk. I hope he won't hit back, though.

* * *

**Julie's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

This spring break is great! I don't care if anyone else is having fun right now, 'cause I'm having a blast!

Mark, yea he's great. He got us, the Ducks, backstage passes and they are fabulous! I'm using mine today, and I'm leaving soon, and nobody can stop me!

Sharing a tent with Connie ain't that bad either. I was sort of disappointed, because Samantha promised that we could "tent" together. But, being the nice girl she is, and for the sake of everyone else, she switched with Connie. But we only share it at night, obviously, and we're sleeping, so it's really not that big of a deal. Besides, Connie is like one of my best friend.

It's like 10 in the morning now and I'm ready to go. "I'm leaving!" I scream, waking some people up and making the people who are awake jump.

"Julie, wait a little while." Charlie says.

"Noo." I groan.

"Yes! Not everyone is up yet."

"I always have to wait!" I pout.

"You'll live, honey."

"Don't call me that!"

Charlie just sticks out his tongue.

5 minutes later…

"I'm leaving and no one can stop me!" I scream.

"Julie, stop and shut-up! You're going to wake everyone else up!" Charlie scolds.

"Good! Then we can leave!" Boy, I'm sounding awfully selfish. Aw, screw it. It's for Mark!

"Julie, be reasonable! It's like 10 in the morning! Give the others about an hour; some of them are just off getting breakfast."

"But that's no fair! I always have to wait!" I whine again.

"You'll live! We're here to stay together. I'm in charge and I don't want us getting split up." Charlie says as I mock him.

"But yesterday Fred and Connie and Catalina and Port---."

"But yesterday, nothing. I'm making new rules that are in effect as of today. We all stick together, I can't lose any of you, Bombay would kill me!"

"Yea, yea, yea." I groan. "Maybe it would be better if he did." I mumble.

"What?"

"Uh, maybe it would be better if I was fed." I try to cover up.

"Yea, whatever. Don't leave. Stay here. I'll go get you food. …Oh, look there's Portman; he can keep an eye on you. Hey Portman!" Charlie calls.

Portman just looks up.

"Make sure Julie doesn't run away. She can't leave the table, kay?"

"Yup." He groans.

"Once again, no fair!"

"Life ain't fair, honey." Portman says.

"Would everyone stop calling me that!"

"Fine, just don't move or I'll have to sit on you."

"You most definitely will not!" I shrieked.

"Don't tempt me." Portman growled.

"Touchy."

Portman glared and started to get up.

"I'm sorry! I'll stop!" I screamed. Imagine if he sat on me…it'd be bye-bye Julie, hello pancake!

* * *

**Connie's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

I stand with Fred in the food line, waiting for breakfast. Again. It feels like an eternity passed by since I stood here the last time, but it's only been 24 hours.

"So..." I mumble, looking very intensely at a fork.

"So," Fred repeats, looking around. None of us continues our trail of thoughts, so silence reigns again. Then he turns to grab a soda from the shelf, giving me a quick glimpse. "I had a nice time yesterday."

My face clearly shows that I'm thrilled about this announcement. We did have a really nice time yesterday, away from the others. But nothing too interesting happened between us, except for some really passionate kisses. I would've definitely liked it if we went even further, but Fred was sort of edgy yesterday.

We almost ended up with more than just making out, but Fred said that we should grab something to eat instead, taking things slowly. I guess he feels bad about Catalina. I feel bad too, but in different proportions. I like Fred too much, and I wouldn't think twice about sleeping with him again. But he's not as interested anymore, and I feel a huge rejection coming my way.

"I did too," I whisper, letting him pay for my food. Also again. He's such a gentleman. Unlike someone else who refused to pay for anything. But I won't mention names. "You wanna... You wanna do something today?"

Fred seems to ponder, he does that a lot obviously, and then he nods. "Yeah, that'd be nice. Look, Connie..."

"You don't have to say anything," I sigh, knowing what to come. "If you want to go back to Catalina, I totally understand."

"No, of course not!" he exclaims. "I was going to say that I'm sorry for yesterday. I know I was being a bit weird, so I'm going to act less strange today."

We walk over to one of the tables, doing our best to avoid our friends. I'm just about to ask what he wants to do when he looks at something behind my back. Before I have time to ask, he stands up. Luis comes bursting past our table, looking upset and angry. Fred opens his mouth to say something, but Luis just ignores him, moving towards the tents.

Suddenly Catalina comes running after him, in tears. Fred grabs her arm before she has time to disappear. "Catalina? What's happened?"

"Don't touch me!" she bellows, pushing him away.

"Why are you crying? Are you okay?"

Catalina gives him a horrified glare, and then she snorts loudly, turning her stare towards me. "Leave me alone!"

Fred watches while she tries to catch up with Luis. I have to ask. "Do you think she knows?"

"I don't think so. Who would've told her? Nobody knows," Fred says, sitting down again. "Sorry about that."

My conscious strikes again. Catalina has been my friend for a couple of years now, and I should worry about her being okay. I hope Luis hasn't done anything to her. But why would she follow him if that was the case? I decide to turn my thoughts back to Fred again.

"I'm not really that hungry," I explain to Fred after a while. He sighs, nodding in agreement. "We could go and join the others; Charlie said that we should stay together today."

No more make-out sessions, that is.

Fred leans closer and kisses me; his lips are soft and have a taste of chocolate, after that candy bar he just finished. "I'll think of something," he murmurs. He has the most affectionate eyes I've ever seen. Maybe he really does like me? I hope he does.

We walk back to the tents and are met by a bunch of people wearing those jackets, showing that they work at the festival area. A young girl, in our age maybe, comes running up to us. "Be careful when you spread to love," she beams at Fred, handing him a condom.

"Why are you handing out these?" I question.

"Oh, we're handing out these to everyone on the area, to keep people from having unprotected sex. We're very responsible," the girl smiles. "You look like a nice couple. Have fun!"

I blush, I don't know why. Fred snickers, and I already know that he's blushing too. Much less embarrassing things makes him blush, but it's cute. Then he grabs my hand and drags me along back to the tents. "She read my mind," he says to me, and I stop doubting about how he feels about me.


	9. Colliding Confusion

**Chapter 9: Colliding Confusion**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** Sorry for taking so long to update, but we're back now, so enjoy!

**Emily:** It's the thought that counts, so keep reviewing, because no review sucks! We're thrilled you like this story, so keep reading!  
**FlatOutCrazy:** Julie won't be killed anytime soon. Although, there are some tensions in this chapter. And Luis won't be a squished bug. Not yet, anyway. Luis will get his happy ending, just like the others, don't you worry.  
**Chelsea:** Yeah, Luis is sort of hot. And now he's comforting too. It's getting better and better. And protected sex is fun. No, wait, that came out wrong. And there'll be some swinging and swunging in this chapter. That sounded just strange. We hope you like this chapter, since you've been waiting a _looong_ time for it… (Cimmy urges you to blame her, and she's also sorry for not reviewing more, she's been bad at feedback lately.)

* * *

**Charlie's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

When I get back from my breakfast fetching, there are something going on between the happy little campers. Although, they look all but happy. Except for Julie, who's been a pest ever since she met Mark.

I don't remember leaving a team of fighting imbeciles behind when I went to get Julie some food, so she can finally shut up for one second. I realize that it's Luis who's scolding, surprisingly enough at Portman. And for once, Portman doesn't beat him to a bloody pulp in exchange.

"What's going on?" I ask Julie, while putting down her tray of food on the table. This is the first time she's not bugging anyone since we got here.

Julie tilts her head to the side, shrugging. "I don't know. Luis just showed up, yelling at him. Something about doing something bad with someone. Don't ask me what it's about, they speak in riddles. I can't deal with riddles."

"Maybe I should break them apart before something bad happens," I point out, but Luis beats me to it. Or actually, it's Portman he beats. Wow, Luis must really be angry, if he has the guts to do something like that. Most people would've thought twice about punching Portman, probably because they would be afraid that he'd hit back. "Hey, cut it out!"

They barely notice me, but I manage to get Guy and Ken's attention. They quickly run over to see what's going on. Julie gets up from the chair, gasping. "Charlie, do something!"

Well, there's not much to do. Portman just glares at Luis, without making an effort at giving back at him. Fulton shows up, stepping between them. "This is really mature," Fulton hollers, shaking Luis around. "What's this all about?"

Fred and Connie join Julie and me by the table. They look guilty for some reason, but I don't think it has anything to do with the current fight. Catalina also comes bursting back, from the other direction. She takes one look at Fred, and then she glances at Portman. Of course, after that, she runs off again. Does that girl ever do anything else but running?

"Could you calm down?" Portman requests, not at all surprised. What the hell is going on behind my back? Can they never behave? "Could you please hear me out before you jump to conclusions?" He gets up, obviously not too affected by the punch. Oh, I hope he won't hit back. Poor Luis.

Luis is still looking outraged, upset about something. "How could you do anything so disgusting?" he hisses. "You're below scum; you're not even worth it. How could you treat anyone that bad?"

"Look, you haven't heard my side of it," Portman starts, but is cut off by Fulton.

"Why don't you both just tell us what this is all about?" he suggests. "We're not here to fight; we're here to have a good time. Luis, please share with us what it is that Portman did that was that terrible."

We all look a bit confused thanks to Fulton's somewhat incoherent babbling, but Luis doesn't seem amused. Just furious, and close to tears at the same time. "I don't want to hear anyone's side of it. I just find it sickening. I've heard enough."

He turns around to leave, but Fulton grabs his arm. "I think you should sort this out. You can't stay mad at each other, you're friends, remember?"

"Doesn't change a whole lot," Luis mutters. "By the way he treats his friends, I'm lucky I'm still alive."

"That's not fair," Portman speaks up. "You don't know half of it."

"And spare me the other half, thank you. You can go to hell, for all I care." Luis yanks his arm away from Fulton and walks back from where he came. I can see that Catalina is waiting for him around the corner, running up to him and pulling his arm.

Julie gives me a confused gaze, like she's questioning me about the current events. I know just as much, or little, as she does. "Maybe we should get going," I say. "Portman, stop with the whimpering. We'll deal with this later."

"But..." Fulton objects, but Julie interrupts him before he can finish his whining.

"Charlie's right, we're here to have a good time. I for once won't let this ruin my Spring Break."

"Hey, I was the one who said that, not Charlie!" Fulton exclaims. Well, sorry for stealing the spotlight, dude.

Okay, so what did just happen? Luis is mad. Obviously. Portman has done something unpleasant. Granted. Fulton is upset because they're fighting. Figures. Julie is insane because she's in love. Spare me. Guy is absent right now, but is definitely trying to win Connie back. Very obviously. Connie is either crushing on somebody, or having a nervous breakdown. As usual. Fred is behaving very strange, and has either been dumped by Catalina, or is moping because she's avoiding him. Sigh. Catalina is miserable about the same thing, whatever it is, but is running after Luis, or the other way around. Moan. Ken is annoying, now when he's in love. And Samantha? I don't even know where she is. The same goes for Adam, even though he's physically around here somewhere. Okay, so that was a tiny bit mean of me to say.

Yep, I'm the best captain alive. I think I'll go to sleep again.

* * *

**Adam's point of view**

So, Julie's nagging has brought us all backstage. We've been dealing with her upbeat behavior all day long. Even though something is clearly wrong among the players, Charlie mentioned some fight after I got back from brushing my teeth, we're all here. All but Luis and Catalina, I don't know why they aren't here.

"I want to hear them play," Julie exclaims into my poor ear. "Who's up next?"

"Probably someone with a slight hearing disability, the way you howl," I groan. "Where's Guy?"

She spins around in a circle, barely looking. "Don't know. So, who's up next?"

I shove one of the programs into her hands and start walking back to find the others. How did I end up with Julie anyway? I strayed away from the flock, and that way I ended up with the complaining Cat. I spot Samantha over by the snack bar. She's not eating, but she's staring at a fire extinguisher. Why does every one of my teammates have to be so strange? But she's probably the sanest of them all, and that says a lot.

"What's up?" I ask, and she almost falls over with surprise. And she's still not the even remotely close to the other insane bunch of Ducks... "Sorry if I scared you. You know where Guy is?"

"Nah, but he's probably around here somewhere. I'm hiding from him here; I figured this would be the last place he'd look."

"You wanna join me to go look for the others? I'm lost."

Samantha gives me a smile, sighing because of the effort of moving. I laugh back, grabbing her wrist to drag her along. "God, that's so much hard work. Can't we just stay put and let them find us?" she suggests, letting me pull her across the floor. My God, use your feet, girl.

We run right into Charlie, or it's more like I'm running into him, Samantha is of course too far behind to be run into in any way. Or so I thought, until Guy makes an appearance from the left, crashing into her with a thud. All four of us start complaining, whimpering, groaning, whatever suits the situation best.

"That was unnecessary," Charlie mutters at me. "Look before you turn a corner the next time, will you?"

"I can't really be blamed for you not looking!" I point out. Guy and Samantha are pretty much exchanging the same words, but down on the floor. "We were looking for you. Well, I was, I don't know what those two are doing, really."

Charlie extends his hand to help Samantha up, and she shoves Guy off from her. "There's no time for that now, Germaine. We have to go find the Bashers and Connie."

"And Fred," Guy adds. "Oh, and Ken."

"Ken is one of the Bashers," Samantha points out. "Where's Julie?"

"Oh, she's missing too... Maybe we should make a list?" Charlie says sarcastically. Then he bites his lip. "That's not a bad idea, though. Anyone got a pen?"

Suddenly we can all hear Julie giggle from down the hallway. Mark must be somewhere close. Then she starts to talk, with some sort of high-pierced voice. Fred comes walking from around the same corner Charlie just came from, Julie glued to his side. He looks to be in pain by her yapping. I would too.

"Please, Jules, could you lower your voice. You're giving me a headache," he begs. "I'll pay you, if you just shut up."

"I'm just saying..." she starts all over again, and we turn our hearing off. I wave at Charlie to follow, and the others just tag along as well. Samantha is shooting Guy some nasty glares, and he's looking around, probably searching for Connie. Could he be more obvious?

"There she is," Charlie points at Connie, who's walking out from the bathroom. "Where have you been?"

She stops, just so she can motion at the door. "Where do you think, idiot?" He doesn't seem to get it anyway, so she just sighs and hurries over to us. I notice that she's tugging at Fred's arm, before skipping up to Julie. Why did she do that?

"I'm hungry," Julie starts to whine. My brain starts to process her words again, after that long, unnecessary rant about Lethal Cause.

"Yeah, me too!" Connie whimpers. "Let's get something to eat, you guys?"

Charlie wrinkles his nose. "We have to find Portman, Fulton and Ken first. Who else is missing?"

"Well, Catalina and Luis are, but they weren't here in the first place," Julie says, taking a leap at Charlie. "Please, Charlie, we have to get some food!"

Guy looks at Samantha. "Aren't you gonna start whining too? Every other female does."

"I'm not that hungry," she points out. Why she's not hungry isn't something we have time to ask, because Fulton shows up, with his two companions' right behind him.

"Dude, we have to get some food!" Julie exclaims.

We roll our eyes, every one of us. At the same time. That's how obvious she is. "I guess we could eat," Ken mumbles.

"Great! Awesome! Food! Oh, and then we have to go find Mark, I have to talk to him before he goes on. You know, Mark, as in..."

"Lethal Cause!" we all exclaim.

"We know, you can't stop talking about him. Chill, Cat," Portman growls, obviously not in a very good mood.

One of the people, who'd been watching us bicker, approaches us, well, mostly Julie. "Hey, do you mean Mark Berger, the lead singer from Lethal Cause?" he asks her. Oh, no, she's going to start rant again, isn't she?

"Yeah, I do, he's great," Julie says.

"How do you know him?"

"Well, he's the one who got my friends these backstage passes, and he and I have been going out," she exaggerates. What I know, she's only been out with him once. That's not dating. That's _a_ date.

"So, you're his girlfriend? Interesting. Would you mind taking part of an interview later? Maybe let us take some photographs of you and him together? Here's my card, come back here later if you're interested."

Julie seems unsure about this, since she was practically just making the whole thing up. "Uh, sure," she says nervously, accepting the card. The man leaves, and Charlie yanks the card out of her hand, ripping it apart.

"There, problem solved," he announces, grabbing her hand to get her away from there.

"What'd you do that for?" she exclaims, although looking relieved anyway.

"Who knows what sort of pictures he was going on about," Charlie snorts, making Julie blush. "And you're not that guy's girlfriend, so there's no way in hell you're going to do any interviews."

"I could be!" she howls.

Why do I have the feeling that the facts she just gave to that guy, will only get us into some major troubles?


	10. Problems in Paradise

**Chapter 10: Problems in Paradise**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**FlatOutCrazy:** There'll be more Luis in the next chapter, for now you have to read more about the problems Julie is causing. Ah, what a joy.  
**Chelsea:** Ah, your begging paid off, how do you like this quick update? Huh? Huh? Huh?! (Yeah, I'm out of smart comments to make, isn't it obvious?)

* * *

**Ken's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

Wow, Julie's annoying…and loud. Whoever thought such a small person could make so much noise? But I guess it's all good. I mean she did get us backstage passes.

"So, how are things with that Katie chick?" Portman asks from behind me.

"Good. So what's up with you and Luis?"

"Nothing, just a misunderstanding." Portman grits his teeth and glares something about Luis and Catalina. Somehow, I can tell he's lying.

"Yea, sure." I roll my eyes.

"So, how far have you gotten with Katie?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know, first, second, third base… maybe, not likely, but maybe, home." Portman acts like he's talking to a 2-year-old.

"None of your business! Look we all know you slept with some whore the other day! I don't care!" I say rather loudly.

Some of my teammates turn around. Fred, Connie, and Samantha all either have wide eyes or their mouths opened. Maybe they didn't know… or it could've been because of my outburst.

"Yea, so at least I've slept with someone." Portman remarks. Man, what is his problem today?

"I don't –." I start, but I'm cut off by Julie.

"Look there's his trailer!" Julie yells and runs toward it.

Thanks to Charlie's new 'we-are-going-to-stay-together' rule, we all run after her.

The man who Julie told that she was Mark's girlfriend was standing at the door.

"We have backstage passes, can we go in?" Julie bounces.

The man gives her an odd look.

"Please! Please! Please! Please!" Julie whines.

"Um, I don't think it's time yet."

"C'mon, just let us in you big lug!" Julie yells and hits the man's chest.

The man's eyes widen and he seems quite annoyed with Julie. "Fine! Go in!" he yells with an attitude.

We all go in, one by one, Samantha being the last one. She falls flat on her face, literally.

"Ow, I landed on something, hard!" Samantha winces.

"Well that was smooth." Guy remarks.

"He pushed me!" Samantha says as she sits up and points to the man outside the dorm.

"Yea, okay." Guy rolls his eyes.

"Where's the band?" Julie squeals.

The door slams shut.

Click.

* * *

**Guy's POV**

"What just happened?" Connie asks.

"I dunno. Samantha, open the door, we should leave." Fred instructs.

"Why me? I'm in pain!"

"Yes, I'm sure you are." Fred rolls his eyes as Samantha rubs her rib area. "Just open it, you're the closest."

"God you're immature…" Samantha mumbles.

It's silent for a few seconds.

"Fine!" She says with an attitude.

Adam, Charlie and I raise an eyebrow. She's acting strange.

Samantha gets up and attempts to open the door. "Uh, you guys, it won't open. I think we're locked in."

"You're so weak; I can't believe you're a hockey player." I say.

"Gee, thanks Guy. Raise my self-esteem just a little bit more." She's starting to act very strange…what's wrong with her?

"I'm just saying; you can't even open a simple door!"

"Well, why don't you try!?" Samantha snaps at me.

"Okay, I will." I walk over to the door. "Shit. You guys…"

The whole team stampedes to the door, banging it and trying to open it. In the end, it's just a big dog pile; Samantha and I are at the bottom.

"My god, Guy, you're so weak, I can't believe that you're a hockey player." Samantha mimics me.

"Shut-up." I say as people start to get off of us.

Maybe she schizophrenic, should I be worried?

* * *

**Samantha's POV**

This isn't very much fun so far. I've been pushed, fell on something hard, and tackled in the last 5 minutes…oh yeah, and I was insulted by Guy, joy!

"Hey." Adam says sitting next to me.

"Hi." I give him a small smile.

"What's up?"

I just shrug.

"Is something wrong?" Adam asks.

"No, why would anything be wrong?"

"I don't know. You're acting different that's all. It just doesn't seem like you."

"Oh." Have I really been acting different? Sure, I've been avoiding people and been a little rude, and I've snapped at a few people. And then there's the fact that I don't want to do anything but sit or lie down. Now that I think about it, I've have been acting a little different since Guy kissed me. Stupid Guy. Ah! Look at that, I would normally never call my teammates stupid unless, I was joking. This is all Guy's fault! Whoa, there we go again, blaming people, I don't normally do that either… but it is sort of his fault.

"This is all you're fault." I say to Guy who's sitting on the opposite side of me.

"What, how?" Guy seems shocked.

Damn, he's right, I can't blame him for being locked up in a trailer…me change is though.

I turn to Adam. "This is your fault." There I go again!

"Excuse me?" Adam seems shocked, also.

"You made me stop staring at the fire extinguisher! I could have stayed there and not been here!"

"Charlie wanted to have everyone together. I was trying to help him." Adam defends himself.

So it isn't really Adam's fault either.

"This is all your fault!" I stare at Charlie who's sitting across from me.

There's something wrong with me…really.


	11. Repeated Destructive Manners

**Chapter 11: Repeated Destructive Manners**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! We're sorry for the long wait, but we hope this chapter makes up for it. Hopefully with summer almost here there will be more frequent updates. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with this story despite the long periods of time between updates and reviewed, we appreciate it. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Quimby for looking over the Spanish parts for us! We very much appreciate your help!

* * *

**Luis's point of view**  
By: Cimmy 

I completely disregard Charlie's plea about sticking together. What is this; some damn kindergarten group? We're a hockey team, not Disney On Ice!

Portman seriously pissed me off earlier. I shouldn't have hit him, but I just couldn't help it.

"Luis, it wasn't that bad," Catalina tries to comfort me. After the little dispute, we both left the area to stay away from the rest of the group. "Portman wouldn't do anything like that on purpose. It's not like he forced me to…"

"I beg you not to finish that damn sentence," I growl. I don't know why I'm irritated with her, because she doesn't deserve it. Although, she does come off as incredibly stupid for falling for Portman's lame tricks.

Since we can't leave the actual festival area without our passes, we have to stay right inside of the entrance. Catalina is kicking sand on my shoes, and I'm trying to calm down. "How could you be so stupid?!" I suddenly explode. Catalina jumps, startled by my outburst. "_Tu es tan estúpido_! You know what he's like, Catalina. How could you fall for his sweet-talk? My God, why go from Fred to him? Are you out of your mind?"

She gives me a wide-eyed look. Then she turns to walk away from me. Damn. Before I can prevent her from leaving, she stops dead and comes back. "I didn't _fall_ for his tricks! I have tricks of my own, you know. Maybe I just needed to feel wanted. You don't know how that feels, because you're _always_ wanted!" she bellows. Then she bursts into tears.

Oh, man. Why can't I ever learn when to shut up? "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Let's go somewhere else." I look around for something she can wipe her tears away with. Suddenly Ken's crush shows up in front of us. "What's up?" I ask automatically.

"Looking for Kenny, is he around?" Katie wonders. I just met her briefly last night, and I'm not sure she's met Catalina yet. It doesn't seem like the right time to introduce her either, because the young Latina is still sniffling and wiping her tears.

"He went to see some performance," I announce. "He'll be back tonight."

Katie, being a bit tipsy at the moment, nods at Catalina. "Hey, you're that girl! I know you! Your boyfriend is the one who had sex with that girl. Right?"

Catalina shakes her head. "I'm 'that girl', and Portman isn't my boyfriend," she mutters. Then she seems to realize something. "No… Do you mean Fred?"

I can tell where this is going, so I quickly grab her arm and drag her away from Katie. "Don't listen to that drunk. She's… drunk."

Without a warning, Catalina starts swearing. I let go of her and watch as she's kicking at a tree nearby. When she's done with that, she throws herself down on the grass and stares up at me. "He slept with her, didn't he?"

"I guess so," I say. "That sucks."

"Sucks? It's terrible! It's more than just sucks. It's a tornado of suction. It's like Twister, but with Fred and Connie instead of a flying cow!"

I let her rant for a couple of minutes until I sit down next to her and shove at her leg. "Spring Break is lovely, _no es_?"

"Spring Break is the suction of suck," Catalina whimpers. Then she crawls back up from the grass and puts her head on my shoulder. "You're the only one I can trust. You're just a vacuum-cleaner of suck."

"Could you stop using the word 'suck'? Are you hungry? I can treat you to a meal of… porridge."

"Oh, yum," she says without enthusiasm. "Porridge sucks too. Sorry."

We sneak back to the tents, because I left my money and everything there. The others are gone, not a single Duck as far as the eye can see, except for a couple of _actual_ ducks in the poisonous pond by the main stage. "When were they coming back?" I ask.

Catalina sighs. "Knowing how horny Julie is for that Mark guy, I'd say tomorrow around noon."

I look at my watch. This day passed rather quickly. I know that we were supposed to watch Lethal Cause perform later, and the others won't be back until tonight. They have backstage passes. Damn Portman. I could've been there too, hadn't it been for him.

My thoughts are disrupted by Catalina. "Do you really think I was stupid?"

"Well, it wasn't the smartest thing to do," I admit. "Though, I'm mostly taking out my anger on you. Portman should be here."

"I'm glad he's not. I'd rather be with you."

I get up from the bench and take her hand. "Let's do something, then. Listen to some band or something." I bring her closer and she stares at me. "What?" I ask.

"Nothing… Hey, Luis?"

"Yeah?"

Catalina smiles to herself, looking down into the ground. I'm just about to ask what she's doing, when she quickly spins around, putting her hand on my cheek to turn my head towards her. Then she leans up to me and gives me a kiss. "Thank you, Luis."

"You're welcome," I reply, a bit surprised about what she just did. "Uhm… What was that for?"

"Just 'cause."

"_Eso está muy bien,_" I mumble. Suddenly we're crawled up in each other's arms, kissing passionately, feeling each other up.

This has been a mighty weird day.

* * *

**Fred's point of view**

Our efforts to escape from the trailer have been useless to say the least. Well, I say 'our', but so far, no one but me has done anything at all but complained. Even though Portman is considerably taller – and probably stronger, too – than I am, all he does is sitting on the floor staring at me while I'm trying to get the door opened by throwing myself at it.

So far, I've had no success with it. I rub my sore elbow while considering another way to get out, since all that happens now is that I'm getting beaten up by myself.

"Try knocking, the man outside might still be there," Julie suggests with a dull voice.

"Care to help me a little?" I growl as nicely as I can. "If we all help out…"

"Oh, don't be such an optimist," Portman hisses. "We're never getting out of here. Deal."

What's wrong with these people? They all sit around; acting like this is a normal situation we're in. I turn towards Connie to see if she might want to back me up, but she's all too busy investigating her nails. "I'm knocking myself senseless here, and you just sit and do nothing?" I exclaim. No one looks up.

This is why I figure they're depressed: Portman has been moody all day, most likely because Luis hit him. Julie is naive and won't accept that she's not going to see her beloved Mark, and she's also convinced that being in this trailer will only bring her together with Mark faster. Charlie is a bit frustrated because he's lost track of Luis and Catalina – where is _she_, by the way? Guy keeps arguing back and forth with Samantha, who in turn acts like… well, a lunatic. The rest of us are bummed out because we're influenced by them.

Instead of waiting for an answer, I decide to kick at the door, leaving my old tactic behind. "This is ridiculous," I yell exasperatedly, hoping that someone from outside might hear. "Let us out of here! Ouch!"

I push myself away from the door, swearing loudly over my bruised toe. Connie finally looks up from her index finger. "Haven't your mother ever told you to avoid kicking at things that can't move?"

Excuse me for trying to get us out of here, missy. I would love to say that to her, yeah. I won't, though. Connie isn't acting anymore different than I am, because we're both too afraid to speak to each other in a way that would tip any of the others off about what we're doing. I mean, about our semi-secret relationship.

"No, she hasn't," I reply with a strained smile. Connie tilts her head to the side and smiles back, but leaves it at that. No matter how much we both would want to forget entirely about this nonsense and go somewhere to make out, that's just not an option at this point. I shouldn't complain, though. After all, we had sex just this morning after breakfast. But I won't mention that either, considering the amount of people that don't need to know about that.

"Well, she ought to," Connie mumbles.

I actually can't recall hearing my mother tell me anything at all of importance during my entire childhood, except for the random comments to stop being such a failure. I think I would remember, since my short term memory isn't as bad as my slow mind can be. Plus, I kicked numerous doors while I lived at home, and no one ever said anything…

What was I doing again?

* * *

**Luis's point of view**

Of all the moronic things to do. Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?

The short dry after this morning's rainfall is over and the raindrops are rattling against the tent. The smell of wet grass and mud hits my nostrils, making me thankful I'm not outside.

I'm suddenly very aware of the fact that I haven't had any time to eat breakfast yet. My stomach is violently protesting against the lack of food but I can't eat now. I don't think I can eat ever again.

"I'm not sure that was such a wise thing to do," Catalina says, her voice coming from the other side of the tent. Since when did the tent become so huge?

"Uh…" is all I can answer. The realization starts to dawn on me. What have I done, what have I done, what have I done, what have I done? My brain keeps chanting that until the words have lost all their meaning and the only language I seem to be able to understand is Spanish.

The curiosity is too much to bear, however, and I turn my head up so I can look at her. "It was a heat of the moment thing," she rants. "You were being too nice to me and I let my emotions run wild. Maybe we should just forget it ever happened?"

Sure. Right. That seems like something I could do.

Not.

"We should probably talk about it," I suggest, unable to keep eye contact with her anymore. "I shouldn't have… I mean, I should know better than to…"

"Hey, look, Luis, I don't blame you for what happened," she mumbles nervously. "We're teenagers. Stuff happens. Hormones, ya know. This just proves that we should never be allowed to be alone together anymore."

"Right…"

Catalina nudges her toe against one of Ken's shoes (why would he leave the tent wearing only one shoe?) and wraps his sleeping bag even tighter around her body. The humidity in the tent is about to kill us both and the constant raining doesn't make it a least bit better. It's terribly hot and at the same time wet in all corners of the tent. Waterproofed my ass.

"I feel so bad about it," I admit. "You're my friend; we're not supposed to be…"

"Never mind that," she cuts me off, stretching her legs out. Hmmm… her toenails are painted dark blue… No, that's not what I should concentrate on right now.

"But still, I'm older than you, it's wrong…"

"Just be quiet. You're not making it easy for me to think," she explains sternly. I don't want her to snarl at me no more so I shut up and focus on something else, while Catalina looks thoughtful, chewing on her lower lip.

Most of her body parts are covered up by Ken's sleeping bag – he's going to get _so_ angry when he hears what I've done on his side of the tent – but I can't stop staring at her legs. She's so tanned. Or that might be her actual skin color for all I know, I haven't really paid close attention to her in that way before now.

I look up again. She has tucked the sleeping bag under her arms, so her skin is bare from her shoulders and up. Now I desperately need to think of something else. Cold showers and ice, preferably. "So…" I begin.

"Well, there's no point avoiding the subject. My name is Catalina and I'm obviously a slut."

The urge to say 'hi Catalina' is hard to resist, but I manage. "You're not a slut."

"Oh, yes, I am."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No!"

"Yuh-huh!"

We continue to dwell back and forth like a couple of kids. I can't believe we're actually seventeen and eighteen years old. No, wait, what I really can't believe is that I had sex with her in the first place.


	12. The Trailer of Mayhem

**Chapter 12: The Trailer of Mayhem**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! We're sorry for the long wait, but we hope this chapter makes up for it. Hopefully with summer almost here there will be more frequent updates. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with this story despite the long periods of time between updates and reviewed, we appreciate it. Enjoy!

**Emily**-Sorry for the wait, Em. We're glad you're enjoying the fic. You'll have to wait a little longer to find out about Luis and Catalina. The next chapter, maybe? Thanks for reviewing, hun!  
**FlatOutCrazy**- Seems to be the common solution for everything these days, hopping in a tent with one of your teammates. We're happy you enjoy Catalina's creative use of language. Thanks for reviewing all this time.

* * *

**Charlie's POV**  
By: iluvguygermaine00 

We seriously got ourselves into a royal mess. I don't think we've been in this much shit ever, in our whole entire fucking lives, any of us. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has done anything right on this damn trip. Pissed, me? Nah.

So, now I have to get us out of this mess because I'm the god-damn captain and everyone turns to me for this crap. First, I have to get us out of this damn trailer. No, maybe I should mediate between my teammates before they all kill each other. Then again, Luis and Catalina are off somewhere doing who knows what, and maybe I should wait to mediate. Congratulations Charlie, you've done it this time!

Fred and Connie have started bickering about what Fred's mother taught him, Julie keeps blabbering on about how she _needs_ to see Mark, and the rest of the team is complaining or doing something that makes someone else miserable. Don't they understand that is completely irrelevant and not helping what-so-ever?

"Do we honestly care?" I glare at Julie, who is the loudest of them all.

"Excuse me?"

"Nobody cares that you 'need' to see Mark," I say, using my fingers to emphasize the quotes around the word _need_.

"How do you know?" She snaps. "Somebody could care. Adam, don't you care?"

"Uh, not really, sorry Jules." Adam shrugs.

"How can you not care?!" Julie shrieks.

"Because Julie, it's stupid. You've known the guy for a few days and suddenly you're in love. I think it's more important that we get out of here than you seeing Mark again. This is actually your fault you know." I say, rather rudely.

"C'mon Charlie, calm down. We shouldn't be blaming people." Ken says.

"No, I mean if she wasn't so fucking dead set on seeing Mark, we wouldn't be in here."

"I think he's officially lost it." I hear Samantha whisper to Guy.

"Oh, like you're one to talk." I glare at Samantha. "You were blaming people earlier, myself being one of your victims. Not to mention that you've changed so much on the damn trip that you're practically insane. You're probably schizophrenic or something."

She stares at me wide-eyed for what seems like years when Connie breaks the silence. "Charlie, just chill. You're just letting your anger out on the rest of us."

"Oh shove it, Connie." I growl.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Fred joins in.

"Oh, what are you going to do about it? Besides shouldn't you be a little more upset that your girlfriend dumped you?!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Fred glares at me. Boy, if looks could kill, I'd be dead and six-feet-under by now.

"I don't know. It just seems that if my girlfriend dumped me I might be a tad bit more upset and a little less all over Connie."

"Well they did sleep together." Portman grumbles.

"You slept together?!" Guy howls as the rest of us stare back and forth between Connie and Fred.

"How the hell do you know?" Connie hisses at Portman.

"Well, Connie, you shouldn't have sex in a tent because everyone can hear you!" Portman growls at Connie. My, he's in a bad mood.

Most of us are still staring dumbly at Fred and Connie while Guy decides to repeat himself, "You slept together?!"

Fred looks at Connie and she just shrugs and nods. "Yeah, fine, we slept together."

"Portman!" Fulton yells.

"What?"

"You knew all this time and you _didn't_ tell the rest of us?" Fulton complains.

"Yeah." Portman shrugs.

The reality of what Fred and Connie did finally sets in, "You guys did what?!"

"They slept together," Adam says very slowly.

"I got that, you moron. It was a rhetorical question."

Adam just rolls his eyes.

"God, Orion is going to kill me. Can one of you just decapitate me now?" I groan.

Guy, who's been glaring at Fred for quite some time now, finally speaks up. "How could you sleep together, you had a girlfriend when you came on this trip!"

"Yeah, well, things happen. What do you want me to do about it?" Fred says.

"Does Catalina know?"

"Yes. That's why we broke up." Fred informs us, which most of us had probably assumed was the reason now.

"So you cheated on her! Connie, can you honestly trust a guy who cheated on his girlfriend?"

"What are you getting at? Why the hell do you care anyways?" Connie asks.

"Uh, well," Guy tries to say something.

It's silent for a few moments. The rest of the team, minus Guy, Connie, and Fred, just stare at the three lunatics.

"Are you blind? Seriously, Connie, Guy's been planning a way to get you back this whole trip!" Adam exclaims.

"Oh." Connie says, sounding somewhat surprised.

The majority of us groan. Is my team really that dumb?

"How did you not notice?" Fulton asks.

"I was busy."

"Yeah, screwing Fred." Portman snorts.

"Portman, shut up!" Connie yells.

Her yell makes everyone start talking to one another about Fred and Connie sleeping together and Guy wanting to get Connie back.

I shake my head. Why me?

"Everyone just shut up!" I bellow.

All the talking going on stops at once and everyone is looking at me.

"I don't care who slept with who, or who wants to get back together with who, or even who cares for that matter. I know that I'm going to die when we get home, but I seriously don't want to spend my time worrying about it in a god damn trailer."

"Why are you going to die?" Ken asks.

"Well, Ken, once Coach Orion finds out about all of this, I'm dead; I'm completely screwed."

"Who says he's going to find out?"

"Like none of you are going to let it slip?" I ask.

They all stare at me, as if saying 'no'.

"My thoughts exactly."

It's silent for awhile. A good, non-chaotic silence, but Portman has to ruin it.

"I still can't believe Fred got laid." He says bluntly.

Connie lets a frustrated groan and walks over to Portman and punches him.

"What the hell was that for?" Portman yells, clutching his nose.

"What do you think?" Connie yells back.

They go back and forth for awhile, yelling at each other about Fred's sex life and how Portman shouldn't be involved with it.

Fred finally decides to step in, "Can we not talk about my sex life, please? Just drop it. Yes, Connie and I slept together, okay. I think we all understand that, we don't have to discuss if further."

"I still don't see why you had to sleep together. I mean, you did have a girlfriend." Guy glares at Fred.

Fred opens his mouth to say something, but Samantha beats him to it.

"Guy, just drop it. You're just upset because you wanted to get Connie back, and now you can't because you were slow and didn't make your move. Get over it." She says this last part rather slowly for Guy's liking.

"I thought you were on my side!" Guy bellows.

"What sides?"

"You were the one saying how Connie and I were meant to be!" Guy continues to scream.

"You can stop yelling, I'm only five inches away from you. Maybe I was wrong, I'm not all-knowing, you know."

"Well you should be." Guy snaps.

"Well you should be." Samantha mocks and rolls her eyes.

"Are you schizophrenic?" Guy glares.

"No." Samantha said, obviously offended.

"Then why are you acting so different?"

Well, at least we're sort of mediating between each other here.

"What – a person can't change?" Samantha remarks.

The rest of us are silent, including Guy. Most of us have known each-other for years now, and we all changed together.

"Obviously not." Samantha sighs.

It's silent, once again.

"Can we try to get out of here, please? I really want to see Mark." Julie informs us, like we had no idea.

"Why don't you try doing something, little missy." Fred replies, "I've tried to get us out, but did anyone else help…no."

Here we go again.

* * *

**Guy's POV**

Fred and Connie.

Connie and Fred.

Fred and Connie slept together.

Connie and Fred slept together.

Fred and Connie had sex.

Connie and Fred had sex.

Fred and Connie 'made love'.

Connie and Fred 'made love'.

No matter how I put it in my head, it doesn't sound right.

Fred cheated on Catalina, now that makes sense.

But, why? I thought Catalina and Fred were happy. Like Connie and I had once been. I also thought Connie and I were meant to be. No, I was told Connie and I were meant to be. What a bunch of liars. The name 'Guy' should be inserted wherever you see the name 'Fred' up on that list. Where did I go wrong?

She practically chose Fred over me! What does Fred have, that I don't? What's so appealing about a guy who cheats on his girlfriend?! Maybe it's because Fred has money. We all know I come from a middle class family, as does Connie. So, maybe I'm not good enough for her. What's next, is she going to sleep with Adam, too?

I don't get it! He had a girlfriend, what the hell was he doing with Connie? Connie was mine, and according to everyone, it was obvious I wanted her back and that we were meant to be. But, no, once again, I get screwed over in life.

Not to mention, if Fred likes Connie oh-so-much, why didn't he go over to share a tent with her and break it off with Catalina! Or, give her his sleeping bag, better yet, they could've shared it!

Of course, everyone acts like it's normal. How the hell is this normal? Two of our teammates slept together, while one cheated on his girlfriend!

We all know someone else could have gone with Connie to get her god-forsaken pass. But, of course, super hero Fred had to go with her.

I officially hate that kid. I could just break his nose.

This is all Julie's and Samantha's fault. If Julie hadn't been in such a rush to get to the festival, Connie wouldn't have forgotten her pass. If Samantha hadn't switched tents with Connie, I would have made sure she had her pass being that she has been so forgetful on this trip already. Not to mention, they both refused to go back to get Connie's pass.

We better get out of here soon. Right now, I hate everything. I want to go home and get away from everything and everyone, especially the new couple. Someone remind me not to go on anymore group trips with this team.

Life bites.


End file.
